In the early 1970s, my parents had an opportunity to buy some land in Alberta. It was rugged and thick with trees. They could see it would take a lot of work to make it suitable for farming. They bought the land and worked hard together to clear it and make a living. When we kids were old enough to join in, we’d head out to the field in springtime to help pick up rocks pushed up by the winter frost. We dumped the rocks in a big pile along the treeline.

After all that rock picking, the idea of being living stones was not very compelling to me. I just pictured a big pile of unwanted rocks.

But that is not what Peter has in mind. By calling us living stones, he is saying we have been selected and crafted for a purpose: to become part of a beautiful structure in which each shaped stone is set deliberately in line with Christ, the cornerstone—and made alive by the Spirit of God. Peter reminds us that Christ, the cornerstone, is chosen by God and precious, and, like Christ, we are being built up to become a community of people serving the Lord.

Stones are often described as dead, or without life. But in Christ we have been born again through the imperishable, living, enduring Word of God. We are like living stones—lasting, precious, and permanent because of Christ.