Shifting Sand or Bedrock?

This morning, as I look out at the pre-dawn darkness, enjoying a cup of Folgers, I am grateful for peace and the freedom to get up in the morning, turn on the computer, and follow my dream of writing. But, if I turn on the television news, or check out the internet, I realize that not everyone in our great country is enjoying the same sort of morning. As I hear on the news the turmoil that is shaking our country, I wonder why powerful people, generally speaking, do not go to the Bible for answers. If I were in a dark room, needed a light to be able to see, and all I had to do was pick up a near-by flashlight, why would I not do that? If I were about to be swept away in a flood and someone threw me a rope, would I grab the rope and be pulled to safety or would I refuse, trying to swim out on my own?

Our nation, America, has grown and flourished because we are built on our belief in God and His Son, Jesus, and the precepts found in the Bible. Our foundation is bedrock solid. Why would we think we could figure out a better way? I am reminded of the story Jesus told, found in Matthew 7:24-27. “Therefore whosoever heareth these saying of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 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. 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: 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.”

I remember standing on the beach, with ocean waves rushing in and washing back out to sear. Every wave moved the sand under my feet. I would not want to build a house on a foundation like that. I also remember those great, gray rocks at Etta Bend. They are just about immovable. They are heavy, they grip the earth. They are warmed by the sun in summer, ice-cold when winter comes, but they remain the same. Storms come, trees may tumble, gravels might slide down to the river in a torrent of rain, but not those rocks. They don’t move.

A nation, a family, an individual, needs to be sure of the foundation on which we stand. I don’t want to build on anything less.

Mary Edna Latty’s New Testament