The Broken Step
Coming home from a walk one morning, I decided to take a picture to show you our broken stone step. This broken step that leads up to our side porch greets everyone who comes in . . .
. . . and goes out of our house.
Not long after we bought our house, a former resident told us its history. As the story goes, a large stone slab was brought by wagon from the other side of Roaring River.
Red barn and horse drawn farm wagon at the
Howell Living History Farm in Lambertville, New Jersey, 2017.
Courtesy of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project
in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division.
The stone stayed intact as it crossed the river and came down the road. However, when workers set the stone on the ground, it cracked.
Now that we have lived here for more than 19 years, we have our own stone step stories. Perhaps the most dramatic one is about the day one of our sons-in-law lost his wedding ring when it fell down that crack. It must be down there somewhere, but he’s never been able to find it.
Our other stories are joyous ones. One grandchild after another has learned to climb up and down that step. We’ve descended the step to welcome our children and their families when they have visited from out of town. Grandchildren have gone up the step to get the firefly jars I keep under the pantry sink and down the step to go back to the yard to find one firefly after another (or lightning bugs, as we called them when I was finding them in Mama Sue’s front yard when I was a child).
I guess you could say, “If that stone could talk . . . .”
Jesus once told about stones that could cry out about the blessed King who came in the name of the Lord. Thank you for speaking about Him to your children.
As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road.
As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives,
the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully
with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting:
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord;
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him,
“Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent,
the stones will cry out!”
Luke 19:36-40