Every summer the U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition is held to determine who can create the best and most elaborate sandcastle. They all compete for the title of Masters Champion and $21,000 dollars is given away in prizes. Each contestant and his team begin building at exactly 9:00 am and conclude at 3:00 pm. They have only 6 hours to carve their creation. People come from all around to see these amazing works of art made with water, mud, and shells. The stipulation is that you have to work with only what you find there at the ocean or sea-side. The idea of sand carving or sand sculptors has become so popular that competitions are now being held from New England to Japan. After all the planning, the designing, the photographs, the awards, and all the amazed spectators at around 4:00 pm another visitor shows up right on schedule. This visitor hasn’t come to take pictures. This spectator comes by every evening, and then leaves every morning around the same time. It’s called the tide. It never fails. No matter how elaborate or beautifully carved the sand castle is the tide comes in and washes it all away. As I read that I began to think about life as we know it now. We work so hard to have what we have; nothing wrong with that unless what we have has us. Too many times what we have, has us. We think and feel secure in who we are and what we have become, but as we read in Matthew chapter seven about a wise man and how he became wise.
Matthew 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Matthew 7:2 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
This man became wise because he heard the sayings of Jesus and did them. This man was smart enough to build his house upon a rock. There is another man; the foolish. Matthew 7:26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Matthew 7:27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. How did this man become foolish for he had the same opportunity? This foolish man did some things differently he heard but he didn’t do and he built his house upon the sand. When the tide came in, in the form of blowing winds and rain the house fell. If in this life only we have our hopes, desires and joys one day we will see we have built on the wrong foundation. Jesus is the Rock and He is the one we are to build on. The tides coming will you be ready?
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