God, the Leaverite

The March 2012 National Geographic has a fascinating photographic essay on rocks and boulders that were brought south by ancient glaciers and deposited where they now adorn playgrounds, city parks, and roadsides. Fritz Hoffman is the guy behind the camera.

These randomly strewn boulders are called errata officially. But the biggest ones go by another and better name: Leaverites. As in, “that rock is so big, we’ll leave ‘er right there.”

The preacher in me saw that and kicked into overdrive. In our lives, your and mine, there are “leaverites,” massive realities that we have to work around and aren’t able to displace, hide, or control.

One’s family members fall into this category. Your brother-in-law. Maybe your boss or a next door neighbor. One’s physical limitations might be a leaverite, particularly one’s height or some types of features.

We can say that this sinful, fallen world is a “given,” a “leaverite.” It’s there, it’s been this way since Eden and will be such until Christ’s return, and we only frustrate ourselves when we expect it to act in any other way.

People are flawed, are sinners, even the best of us. There is no room for perfectionism. As Psalm 103 puts it, “He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

Whle all of these could be called rock-solid realities that we cannot ignore and must deal with, there is one greater Rock on our landscape, one that dominates everything and deserves a category all by “Itself.”

God is our Rock.


I will love you, O Lord my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation; my stronghold (Psalm 18:1-2).

And later, same psalm:

Who is a rock, except our God? it is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect (Psalm 18:31-32).

And still later:

The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted! (Psalm 18:46)

This song, incidentally, came straight from the pen of David on the day God delivered him from the hand of murderous King Saul. That’s found in II Samuel 22:1, where the psalm is first found in scripture. So, Psalm 18 is repeating (almost verbatim, but not quite) a song of David found earlier in the Word.

The living God is our Rock. He is the ultimate Leaverite.

The best I can figure out, the first mention of God-as-our-Rock comes from Deuteronomy 32, called “The Song of Moses.” The mentions are so good they need to be listed here….

Verse 4 — “He is the Rock; His way is perfect.”

Verse 15 — “(Israel) grew fat and…forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.”

Verse 18 — “Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.”

Verse 30-31 — “How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock.”

Based on the National Geographic article, we may apply three characteristics of “leaverites” to the Living God who is our Rock….

1. He is unchangeable.

For I am the Lord; I do not change (Malachi 3:6). This is a statement on the immutability of God.

And, as you surely know, traits attributed to God in Scripture are frequently then given to the Lord Jesus. And so we read: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

2. He is immovable.

Architects and planners have learned how to work those massive boulders into their designs and to make the most of them.

This is not to say there have not been plenty of God-manipulators on the scene at any given time through the centuries. But while they can manipulate idols and gods of their own imaginations all they please, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, will not be controlled by any mortal man.

Our God is in the Heavens; He does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3).

3. He is unavoidable.

Here in New Orleans, we have the occasional boulevard that honors a large tree by swerving around it rather than cutting through it or removing it altogether. But that is a choice made by the city fathers.

God is unavoidable. Try as one may to ignore Him, deny Him, oppose Him, pretend He does not exist, or argue Him out of existence, He remains.

My brother Charlie was teased for the rest of his life after he decided to run over a large cardboard box in the middle of the highway. After all, there’s something satisfying about the crunch of the box underneath the wheels of a pickup truck. But what my little brother found out too late was inside the box was a washing machine.

It got stuck underneath his truck.

No one knows the courage it took for Charlie to walk down the highway to the general store and ask Ivor Prestridge, “Would you come help me get my truck off that washing machine.”

He never made that mistake again.

The Scripture says, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (I Timothy 1:15).

Some things in life are massive, unchanging, immovable, and unavoidable. The living God and what He did in the Lord Jesus Christ is just that.

Thank God for our Rock, for our “leaverite” Lord.

That said, we’ll leave ‘er right there.

One thought on “God, the Leaverite

  1. Good Morning Brother Joe,

    First, I thank and praise the Lord, for His, using believers, in his truth, to stir my wisdom and understanding, as you have, this morning.

    Leaverites! When I was a fan, I had some; many things, that I felt were to much big a part of me, that I felt they were unchangeable, accept and keep failing, if you will. God didn’t! He allowed those very same, “me things,” to become the obstacles, that could only be moved through a transition from fan to follower (the Holy Spirit, as he wants us to know it, not how we try to us it), to become my continuous waterloo. I chipped at my leaverite, but I would have never gotten to the core of the matter, except that I surrendered my complete will, to Him. I did and it was painful to see, what was at the core of my leaverite, but I, at that very moment understood, that the Holy Spirit revealed the core of my leaverite to me, because it was in the way, and was about to be removed, that the Love of God, could fill that place, where only His love is to dwell. Yes, it pained me to see the core of my leaverite, but never as severe as the pains I went through to turn a pebble into a leaverite. The Lord didn’t put it there, I did, causing great pain to myself and countless others. (See right there, the devil is fuming, I didn’t give him any credit, because the Lord was with me all the time, so the devil had a bit part, in one of many of Gods great creations and the journey continues, with God as the Director; a permanent cast, of brothers and sisters, like you and me, who know our role, line by line. Thank God, for His Holy and Divine Word)

    Brother, I don’t know how other’s responded, but I do know how the Lord lead me to do so.

    May peace and charity, continue with you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.