Only the Rocks Remain
In Lauderdale County, Alabama a few feet off the Natchez Trace parkway and a couple of miles from the Tennessee line, there is a powerful reminder of what hate can do and what love can accomplish. Over 30 years ago Tom Hendrix began to build a wall. That may seem anticlimactic, as many people have built walls through the years. This wall, however, wasn’t to keep out intruders—in fact, it welcomed them. This wall wasn’t designed to hide anything. It was actually intended to reveal.
Hendrix’s great-great-grandmother, Te-lah-nay, was a member of the Yuchi tribe of Native Americans that were transported from this area to Oklahoma. Her tribe called the Tennessee River, “the Singing River” because they believed a woman who lived in the river would sing to them. When Te-lah-nay and her people arrived in Oklahoma the streams and rivers did not sing. She knew she had to go home. She overcame the perilous walk from Oklahoma back to the Shoals.
Hendrix had heard about her journey all his life from his grandmother (Teh-lah-nay’s granddaughter). During a conversation with an elder in the Yuchi tribe he was told “All things shall pass. Only the stones will remain.” That is when he began to build the wall. For 30 years he built the wall. He worked on it until he died in 2017. He would often laugh and tell that he “wore out three trucks, 22 wheelbarrows, 3,800 pairs of gloves, three dogs, and one old man” building the wall.
If you visit the wall (its free by the way) you will be amazed at the thickness of the wall. The unbelievable time and dedication it would have taken to stack every rock piece by piece, around trees and over the curvature of the land. He has a rock from every state, many islands and provinces around the world, and even the moon somewhere in that wall. People come from all around to visit and pay respects to the suffering of the Yuchi people. The Wachahpi Commemorative Stone Wall is a powerful reminder of the suffering mankind can put their fellow man through. It is also a reminder of what love can accomplish.
While most of us will never build a physical commemorative wall to our ancestors, each one of us are building a spiritual wall for the generations to come. “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5). Our work in the church is also a labor of love. We have all been built upon Jesus and the apostles and all the other believers before us (Ephesians 2:20).
Mankind has a pretty bad track record when it comes to how we behave. We have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and that sin has lead to hurt and destruction—to individuals and whole nations. We can continue to be a part of the problem, ignore the problem and hope it goes away, or we can be a part of the solution. We can join King Jesus in his revolution to change hearts and change the world. We can be a part of the wall that forms a path that leads straight to the Savior. We cannot be passive. The mission of Jesus requires us to do more than sit in the pews. We need people to serve in benevolence, teach in our classes, and evangelize the community.
“All things shall pass. Only the rocks will remain.”
What you do will leave a lasting legacy in your family and community. How will you contribute to the wall?
Ben