Each one of these rocks called out to me as I hiked through the forests and streams of Northwestern Montana during a solo camping trip in 2016. I couldn’t resist holding each one, and soon my pockets were heavy with treasures. I didn’t know why I felt so compelled to take them home. What kid hasn’t come home with rocks whose beauty only she could see? Finishing out my trip with a visit to mom’s house, free from the regular routine of life, I indulged in a morning of no plans, no expectations, and quiet, childlike wonder as I dumped out my bucket of random rocks on mom’s back porch, and mindlessly pushed them around. One rock looked distinctly like someone kneeling, so I put a round rock above it, and saw Mary bowing before an angel. Surprised by this obvious likeness, I wondered what an angel would look like as an ordinary rock, and there in the pile it emerged. With six simple rocks, a miracle shined through. I ran upstairs to find mom, and show her my discovery. We spent the morning together pushing rocks around until the entire Christmas story was found in that one bucket of common rocks.

I wondered if each rock was designed millions of years ago for this very moment—to represent Mary or Joseph, an angel, or even Jesus. Because Jesus himself told the Pharisees that if his disciples “should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out,” to testify of him. And so they do in this book and everywhere.

Could it be that we’re like that, too—designed for significance that we cannot begin to imagine, and that will inevitably be so; not by our own design, but by a power much greater and more loving than we’ve before imagined?

Nature and all her beauty, diversity, and wonder will always be an important source of my connection to God. I start feeling small and disconnected when I’m too long from a walk in the woods. There is magic in the trees that cannot be explained and is reserved only for the soul who steps foot and heart onto her ground. Anyone can share in the abundance of the outdoors and be filled up with the peace and contentment of becoming part of her grandeur. 

Let us bring our children to their spiritual roots and reintroduce them to their connection to all things—especially to God. We might be surprised what they will then teach us.