Standing Stones, Papa Stour

Upon the island of Papa Stour are three standing stones, markers erected who-knows-when by who-knows-who.

Online sources reveal little about their origins, the purpose of which might have been territorial, religious, civil or economic. Do they represent a quiet whisper from millennia gone, a silent communiqué from the pale descendants of Japheth who claimed this rock for their tribes in obedience to their father’s God? Or are they modern ‘forgeries’, not dating to the swirling mists of ancient history, or pre-history, but recent decades, to give additional feature to the landscape?

The day we called was a typically windy, squally day, which made the stones somewhat resemble three determined travellers braving the elements as they painfully walked into the furious, biting wind. Perhaps they were indeed modern, the calcified remains of three hippies from the seventies who went out for a walk and were never seen again. Whatever their origin, they added a nice drama and focal point to a beautiful island.

The Christian life sometimes feels like a trek into a gale, a slog through a wilderness. Church life is often hard, too, requiring a lot of effort for seemingly little progress. Yet the message of the Bible is “keep going”.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Matthew 24:13

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