Streams in the Desert September 1 Daily Devotional

I will lay thy stones with fair colors (Isa. 54:11).
The stones from the wall said, "We come from the mountains far
away, from the sides of the craggy hills. Fire and water have
worked on us for ages, but made us only crags. Human hands have made us into a dwelling where the children of your immortal race
are born, and suffer, and rejoice, and find rest and shelter, and
learn the lessons set them by our Maker and yours. But we have
passed through much to fit us for this. Gunpowder has rent our very heart; pickaxes have cleaved and broken us, it seemed to us often
without design or meaning, as we lay misshapen stones in the
quarry; but gradually we were cut into blocks, and some of us were chiseled with finer instruments to a sharper edge. But we are
complete now, and are in our places, and are of service.
You are in the quarry still, and not complete, and therefore to
you, as once to us, much is inexplicable. But you are destined for a higher building, and one day you will be placed in it by hands
not human, a living stone in a heavenly temple.
In the still air the music lies unheard:
In the rough marble beauty hides unseen;
To make the music and the beauty needs
The mater's touch, the sculptor's chisel keen.
Great Master, touch us with Thy skillful hands; Let not the music that is in us die!
Great Sculptor, hew and polish us; nor let, Hidden and lost, thy form within us lie!