The Reject

The brick in the middle is made from a lump of clay. Once it had been given the right shape it was laid on a board to dry. Something special happened here… Instead of lying neatly on the board, the little loaf of clay partly hung over it and sagged under its own weight into this shape. After the usual drying time it went into the kiln, where it was fired. That this brick has never been used for a building is plain to see.

During a holiday on Ameland I picked up this brick on the beach. It had been rejected, thrown away and caught up in storms that finally washed it up on the beach. There is a striking resemblance to what is written in 1 Pet. 2:4: “the living Stone – rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him.” v.7: “The stone the builders rejected, a reject, has become the cornerstone.”