This is one of the most precious stones I have found on the beaches of Ithaca. It seemingly depicts a small girl reaching up to place something on or to retrieve something from a shelf. What secret is this? Perhaps something insignificant, but for her it has great value. We enter into her world, where the values are different – something adults often fail to do, imparting knowledge to children they find superfluous. And yet there is more to this stone than that. On the left and right are strange figures. At the bottom right, one figure seems to be sinking into the ground, or rising from it. And there is an elongated cross with its roots in the ground, maintaining the balance, spilling drops of blood on the old man below. Up above, along the top, a question mark. And the whole is looking at us, like the front of a train.

Meanwhile, in language, Christ was given as a ransom for many. He came to translate for us the meaning of life, which is theosis. He became human in order that we might become gods. All he asks from us is a little willingness. The name of God in the Old Testament is AM (this is the name God gives to Moses at the burning bush when he asks who he should say has sent him). AM, of course, is the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha and Omega (except the Omega is upside down). Also in “ransom”, apart from AM, we find “son” (the letters are in the middle, rearranged, but clearly visible, I think). So language is telling us that God gave himself a ransom for many in the person of his Son. Another theological connection we might find is between “blood” and “spirit”. How so? Well, first the phonetic pairs b-p, d-t and l-r, and then the vowels i-o, with the addition of s. Blood, spirit. Our first calling may be to our bonds of kinship, the blood that runs through our veins, but we soon discover there is a higher calling, one that makes us members of the body of Christ. Everything is in place, we just need to show a little willingness.