Several years ago, we had what the Irish call a “Pub”, a Bar… and it was called “The Frog”. I have heard of a lot of drinking establishments… but none called  “The Frog”.  Then it was torn down and we watched when we passed sometimes daily (not that I shed a tear) but it just so happened that we were in the process of fixing up our yard. It seemed like we planted hundreds of plants, bushes and trees. We created gardens and actually named them. (Now I think that is just wrong.) We have the “Mail-box garden”,  the “Bird house garden”, the “Beside the house garden”, and we had the “Zig-zag garden” (which is thankfully gone), the “Triangle garden”,  and then there is the “Long garden” which goes around the back yard!! We just about gardened ourselves to death, right? Well, this was all a part of just making our little place look a bit better.
   Part of these projects included rocks… lots and lots of rocks. We would see a pile of rocks somewhere and stop and try and get some. We drew the line when we saw road repair being done and huge chunks of sidewalk and street were coming up. THEN CAME THE FROG! When that place came down, I mentioned it to my wife and we were both ‘drooling’. You may think it funny to drool over rocks…. But just think about how much that stuff costs! We were putting borders made of rocks everywhere! Around the gardens, walkways which probably measure out to going around a football field!!! (At least it felt like it.)
   The day came… I went down to the place where all the remained of the “Frog” was a huge pile of rocks. I had my trusty old, half ton 1989 Chevrolet truck (long bed), and stopped at the site, and asked if I could have some rocks. The workers said, “SURE!”, but I don’t think they expected what happened. I started picking rocks, actually cinder blocks that had been broken. Four trips, and two tons of rock later… we had what we thought was enough to put borders around everything in our yard. Surprisingly the truck withstood the stress, even though each load made the truck ‘sag’ on the rear end.
   Now we are almost finished with our projects… and the yard… well, it looks pretty good. All with a lot of hard work.
   Rocks (stones) have been used throughout the Bible for various reasons… building walls (Genesis 11:3), building an altar for worship (Genesis 28:18, 22), stones were used as monuments (Genesis 35:14), as vessels (Exo. 7:19), as examples (Exodus 15:5, 16), as weapons (Exodus 21:8), to write on (Exodus 24:12; 28:10,  to punish and put to death (Leviticus 20:27; 24:14; 26:1; John 8:1-11), used in prophesy (Matthew 24); and reference to Jesus (Acts 4:11)… for closing tombs (John 11:38-45), for marking a place of judgment (John 19:13)… The most notable stone… the one which is historically remembered and spoken about is the one which was moved from the tomb of Jesus (John 20:1).
   Jesus of course didn’t need the stone removed to get out of the tomb… it was moved for US. It was moved so the disciples could go in and see… the linens which wrapped Jesus lying in their folds… So they could see, Jesus was not there.  HE IS OUR RISEN SAVIOR! All the others who claim to be the Messiah are still dead, their graves… marked with a stone.