As our family leisurely walked along the shore line of the Atlantic Ocean, we delighted in the beauty of God’s creation–the eternal noise of the surf, warm sand between our toes, ever-hungry terns overhead waiting to be fed, and beautiful shells being washed to and fro. As we ambled along, we noticed a young man who was building an enormous sand castle which stood about three and a half feet high. The castle was replete with detail, including a moat and a walled fortress around the edifice. There was even water in the moat. The following morning as we came back on shore we purposely looked for the castle in the sand, but there wasn’t the slightest trace of it! The high tide in the meantime had come and had completely washed the castle into oblivion.
In a similar way, it is deceptive on our part to think that all is permanent… that our accumulations are lasting . . . that our health will never degenerate . . . that our bank accounts and securities are enduring … that our beloved country will never fall . . . that we will never be betrayed by friends . . . that our beauty will never fade … that we are in indispensable positions of leadership . . . that our close-knit family circles will never be plagued by infidelity, separation, and divorce.
Everything in this world is subject to change! We are constantly in transition. All is in flux. But amid the transient nature of our existence, Jesus the Christ stands as the unmovable, the unshakable, the unchanging. He it is who reassures us that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us” from His love and abiding presence.
When our faith begins to falter with the ever-varying kaleidoscope of change and decay around us, may we not forget the Christ who offers that which is permanent, eternal, constant, enduring.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand!
November/December 1981