What makes "Nests in a Stone Image" [in Ghost and Flesh] much more than an indulging of an all-too-writerly propensity to write about one's own writing is Goyen's use of imagery of the life of Jesus. The writer's vigil is patterned on Jesus' night of prayer and doubt in Gethsemane and overlaid with allusions to other aspects of his life. But "Nests in a Stone Image" is not updating of Jesus' story: the writer may agonize, but he is acutely aware of his mortality. Goyen utilizes Christian imagery to show both the writer's capacity to love and his anxieties that preclude loving. Goyen believes that belief is an individual possibility, and that each person can be as vital and dynamic as Jesus himself. Given this hope, Goyen has the writer in "Nests in a Stone Image" seek, as Jesus does in Gethsemane, knowledge of his destiny so that he might pass it on; surreal Christian imagery establishes the debilitating effects of his all too human anxiety.
The significance of "Nests in a Stone Image" is that it identifies the full spiritual implications Goyen perceives in the act of telling. His characters often resemble Jesus in their use of speech to further a sense of community; stories about healing and love treat themes identical to Jesus'…. "Nests in a Stone Image" depends not only upon conventional biblical material, but also upon Goyen's personal understanding of Jesus. Study of "Nests in a Stone Image" in this light reveals Goyen's abiding concern with the restorative effects—upon oneself and upon one's companions and hearers—of the act of telling.
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