The Great Stone Face by Chris White

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also   lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  –Hebrews 12:1-2

          

The Great Stone Face is a story by American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne.  The rock formation it references had been a popular site and symbol of New Hampshire for some time.  As is true of all things, time and nature took their toll and the formation finally collapsed in 2003:

There was a young lad who lived in the village below a mountain, and there upon the mountain was the image of the Great Stone Face, looking down so solemnly, so seriously, upon the people.  There was a legend that someday someone was coming to that village who would look just like the great stone face, and he would do some wonderful things for the village and would be the means of great blessing.  The story gripped this lad, and he used to slip away and hour after hour would stand looking at that great stone face and thinking of the story about the one who was coming.  Years passed, and that one did not come, and still the young man did what the boy had done, and went to sit and contemplate the majesty and beauty of the great stone face.  By and by youth passed away and middle age came on, and still he could not get rid of that legend; and then old age came, and one day as he walked through the village someone looked at him and exclaimed, ‘he has come! The one who is like the great stone face!’

The moral of the story is that we, like the man, are becoming what we think about day after day.  This is both warning and a tremendous encouragement.  When we continually meditate on the negative things in our lives we become disappointed, disenchanted, and depressing to ourselves and those around us.  When we meditate and consider that which is wholesome, uplifting, positive, and greater than ourselves, it pushes our lives slowly and inexorably in that direction.  The Bible teaches us to have the mind of Christ in ourselves.  Most certainly this is a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit, but it is also an invitation to contemplate and meditate upon his life which is the most noble and worthy life that has ever been lived.  We become what we think about daily.  If you want to be Christ like, read and contemplate the Word of God daily.  As the old hymn by Helen Lemmel reminds us :

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.