When I first emigrated to Canada, a friend took me to an old graveyard where the gravestones stood silently, proudly, like sentries standing guard over those who lay sleeping in the earth beneath.  Each gravestone told a very different tale.  They spoke, silently, of those who had died as infants and as young children.  Many often dying in the first year of life.  The silent stones also of women, young mothers, who died giving birth to life.  They spoke sadly of young men who died in two great wars, laying down their lives in the quest for peace. Often the silent stones listed whole families, telling those who paused long enough to read them, the history of a particular family whose lives were full of so much pain and grief.  They spoke of those who lived long lives in loud contrast to those who had died so very young.  Yes, the silent stones spoke.  In the whispering breeze these silent stones spoke loudly.

One gravestone told a chilling tale.  It was the sad tale of young love that went terribly wrong.  It was a tale of a young woman, herself still only a child really, who had died in childbirth.  Her lover, also very young, was listed on the gravestone - not as her lover - but as her deceiver.  The silent stone spoke of the pain, the hurt, and the anger of her family - for all to see.

Over time the young man’s name has been erased.  As the story goes his family erased his name, but not before the whole community knew of the other family’s pain and anger over their daughter’s untimely death through the perceived deceit of her young lover.  The young man went on to marry another and raised a family, and continued to live his life in that community. Even though his name has been erased from the gravestone - the story is still told - as is his name - to any who ask.  The silent gravestone speaks loudly.

It may seem strangely odd to begin with such a story.  However to the author it seemed to illustrate just how loudly the silent stones speak to us.

No matter where we go in the world - the silent stones speak .... sometimes they whisper .... sometimes they shout ..... but speak they do to those who stop long enough to look and to listen and to hear.

Before beginning our journey through the Bible, inviting the silent stones to speak to us, let us stand under two of the great trees of Scripture and allow the whisper of God’s word to gently remind us of God’s message of love and hope amidst the darkness of the world.

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens

and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no human to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the surface of the ground.

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man he had formed.

And the Lord made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. 

In The Middle of The Garden Were The Tree of Life, and The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden, to work it and take care of it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the Garden; but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.

We know God made a helpmate suitable for the man.  They both ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

Then the man promptly threw the woman under the bus as he blamed her, and the woman in turn blamed God.

The reality is that there were two trees in the Garden of Eden- one was the Tree of Life the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - and to eat from that Tree meant certain death.  Perhaps the story is too simple for us - but the reality is that human beings knowingly eat from the Tree of Good and Evil - the Tree of Death - deliberately ignoring the Tree of Life.