Stronger Than Stone

Just before the climax of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, things looked pretty grim for our heroes. Quasimodo was in chains, Esmeralda was tied up and about to get burned at the stake, and all of Quasimodo's other friends - other than his gargoyle friends - were in cages, awaiting their own executions. In spite of this, Quasimodo's gargoyles urged him not to give up. Making reference to Quasimodo's impressive strength, they encouraged him to break the chains and save his friends. But he informed them that he had already tried and failed. Defeated, he told the gargoyles to leave him alone. "Alright Quasi, we'll leave you alone," they said, "After all, we're only made of stone. We just thought you were made of something stronger."

And they were right. We are stronger than stone. The scriptures are filled with examples of this truth. Several prophets reported that they or others were able to command mountains to move, and the mountains obeyed. Many times in the scriptures, a man of God would be bound, but would pray for strength or some other miracle, and they'd be able to break their bonds, or their bonds would simply fall off. In the strength of the Lord, we can become physically stronger than stone.

But what about mentally. When I said that Quasimodo was defeated, I didn't mean that it was because he was in chains, about to watch his friends die. He was defeated, mentally, because he had given up. Will we always be defeated so easily by our circumstances? Spyro wasn't, but he was fictional. What about us? Can we stand strong as mountains in the face of daunting challenges?

Of course we can. Human beings are capable of incredible resilience. If we set our minds on completing a task, no amount of discouragement can dissuade us. We can possess incredible will-power, and our resolve can be much stronger than that of stone.

Part of the reason we can be so strong is that we are children of God. His strength is in our spirits, if not in our blood. We have the potential to become just as strong as He is, and He is all-powerful. Given our heritage, it's no wonder that we both are, and can become, much stronger than stone.