Castles in the Sand

We don’t have very much time out each week but on those occasions when we do we have just enough time for a walk along the promenade along St Aubin’s Bay and end up with a cup of coffee before our return journey back to the car.

In the summer time probably about five minutes into our walk we used to stop and have a chat with Simon. Now Simon is a very gifted man who builds elaborate sand sculptures for the pure enjoyment of everyone passing by.

He earns enough to get him by from people’s kind donations. He knows as well as anyone that when the tide is high enough his beautiful creations will be consumed without mercy, but he doesn’t fret too much about that because this gives him the opportunity to start all over again with yet another masterpiece. He is now situated in another part of our Island and we don't get to see him so much any more.

It is easy to observe that no matter how much effort we expend in our plans they are nothing more than castles in the sand if they are not built upon something solid. The lives of many folks are so impressive but there is no substance to them without this all important fundamental truth in them.

Never did I see such a better example of this than when I went to visit an elderly loved one in a nursing home some time ago. Adjacent to the home as we approached it a rather magnificent house under construction and almost competed. It had taken several months to do so but at last it ready for its owners to take up residence in it.

It seemed to me to be a home very much too large for a family but that of course isn’t my business. I couldn’t help but think however of the irony of it all. Just next door there is a nursing home in which some of its residence are at the point of death while a stone’s throw away there is a ‘castle’ being built for somebody – a ‘castle in the sand’ perhaps!

What does it matter to us if we have so much in this world and are not prepared for eternity? We could leave this world without any warning and our ‘castles’ will not matter to us anymore. How much wiser is it to remember that we have a responsibility to our Maker to respond to His mercy and grace in providing for us a Saviour to save us from the very thing that causes us to be separated from Him. Be sure if you die without His forgiveness you will be separated from Him forever.

he death and resurrection of Christ is the surest foundation upon which to build your life and your eternity. May it be that our lives may be monuments of the grace of God by handing them over to Him and allow the Master builder to do His wonderful work? Today is the very best time so make that choice; seeing as we are not promised tomorrow.