Blessings Pebbles

Throughout Lent I had pebbles on display at Church, asking people to decorate them or write something uplifting on them, with a view to handing them out to adults around the community during Holy Week. Soon other local churches got involved . One encouraged the children to decorate the stones, which, I'm told, generated quite a discussion about Easter and what it meant. On Good Friday people were encouraged to hand out the pebbles on the Walk of Witness. After the Walk, I took pebbles to all the businesses open that day and gave one to each person who was working, telling them it was a thank-you from local churches for working on a Bank Holiday. At the supermarket the woman on the till was overjoyed. It was her birthday and she'd been trying to cadge the stone her colleague had been given; so she was really pleased to be given one of her own. Likewise, at one of the greasy spoons, when I introduced myself, the woman behind the counter was quite snappy - tired and harassed, it was a busy café - but when I quickly gave her and her co-workers a pebble each, her tone changed straightaway, and her face and attitude melted somewhat. Even the local tattoo parlour was happy to accept a pebble. This was a really good way of witnessing, and no-one objected. People seemed pleased they had been remembered, and their sacrifice acknowledged. Some of the pebbles had overtly Christian messages, but still there were no objections.