{"id":105,"date":"2009-02-01T14:17:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-01T14:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html"},"modified":"2009-02-01T14:17:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-01T14:17:00","slug":"stone-walled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html","title":{"rendered":"STONE WALLED"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

The old stone wall\u2019s a miracle
Uneven rocks row on row
Without a bit of mortar
Yet each with a place to go.<\/p>\n

How did the mason reckon it
So that the top would be on the level
Did he just suddenly start assembling
Or use a line and bevel?<\/p>\n

And what faith he had whilst building
That malice or weather would forego
The temptation to topple it over
Tumbled all down in the snow. <\/p>\n

It set me in mind of a Builder
Working with just mere flesh and bone
To put his Body together
When commonsense would leave it alone.<\/p>\n

Each person\u2019s uneven, irregular
No two are exactly the same
And yet in composing his Temple
He stamps each one with his name.<\/p>\n

Without cement, or mortar
Only care in construction would do
Whenever your raising God\u2019s household
Only love will serve as glue.<\/p>\n

I slowly inspected the rock wall
And how large and small both alike
Had been piled apparently haphazard
Yet each bit rose up the same height.<\/p>\n

I guess it\u2019s a lesser miracle
Than the one more difficult to see
How a Builder joined us together
From now, \u2018til eternity. <\/p>\n

I decided to stop scrutinizing,
Criticizing its funny ole shape
And just celebrate the marvel
Of how the Rock repaired our landscape.<\/p>\n

Feb. 1, 2009
Grafton, Vermont<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The old stone wall\u2019s a miracleUneven rocks row on row Without a bit of mortarYet each with a place to go. How did the mason reckon itSo that the top would be on the level Did he just suddenly start assemblingOr use a line and bevel? And what faith he had whilst buildingThat malice or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSTONE WALLED - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"STONE WALLED - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The old stone wall\u2019s a miracleUneven rocks row on row Without a bit of mortarYet each with a place to go. How did the mason reckon itSo that the top would be on the level Did he just suddenly start assemblingOr use a line and bevel? And what faith he had whilst buildingThat malice or…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-01T14:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SYX16zf4hgI\/AAAAAAAAB3A\/oFD_XjJ6YSc\/s400\/DryStoneWall_1280x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"STONE WALLED - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"STONE WALLED - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"The old stone wall\u2019s a miracleUneven rocks row on row Without a bit of mortarYet each with a place to go. How did the mason reckon itSo that the top would be on the level Did he just suddenly start assemblingOr use a line and bevel? And what faith he had whilst buildingThat malice or…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2009-02-01T14:17:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SYX16zf4hgI\/AAAAAAAAB3A\/oFD_XjJ6YSc\/s400\/DryStoneWall_1280x1024.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html","name":"STONE WALLED - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SYX16zf4hgI\/AAAAAAAAB3A\/oFD_XjJ6YSc\/s400\/DryStoneWall_1280x1024.jpg","datePublished":"2009-02-01T14:17:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-02-01T14:17:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SYX16zf4hgI\/AAAAAAAAB3A\/oFD_XjJ6YSc\/s400\/DryStoneWall_1280x1024.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SYX16zf4hgI\/AAAAAAAAB3A\/oFD_XjJ6YSc\/s400\/DryStoneWall_1280x1024.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/stone-walled.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"STONE WALLED"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}