Stumbling

1 Peter 2:1-8

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

and

“A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

What goes into me? Malice? Envy? These are the things contrasted with the pure spiritual milk. What is this milk?  It helps me grow up into salvation, just as a mother's milk grows a baby. But the metaphor continues... "if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." Is this the pure milk, the Lord's goodness? Have I tasted such things. Yes. I have. And the remembrance and thankfulness for those things are what has brought me comfort and stability often in my life. God is good. 

I come to him like a living stone built into his house, to be a holy priesthood. Others stumble, rejecting the cornerstone, refusing to be built into the house of God, refusing to make the sacrifices, refusing to believe, refusing to obey.

Isn't this so often my own struggle. Even though I know I'm of God's house, Jesus' words still sometimes make me stumble. I refuse to step over them, accept, obey them. Rather, trying to go my own way I run into the wall.  But when I remember God's goodness to me, the preciousness of the stone that he is, when I look upon him, I do not stumble. I see and adore.