As my son dipped his tiny toes into the water and set foot on the coarse, wet sand, a sly grin came over his face. “Oh yes, I like this, “ his expression implied. As a novice toddler, he is still unable to walk without a hand to hold. Yet that didn’t stop him from mushing us along, crying, “Go! Go!” He was joyfully leading us on a walk at the water’s edge, where our feet were battling the shifting sand and yearning for solid ground.
It reminded me of Jesus’ words, recorded in Matthew 7:24-27:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (NIV).
When you’re walking on the beach, it’s easy to understand the foolishness of building one’s house on sand. There is space between the grains, pockets where water can enter and shift things around. It makes things that you put on the sand very unstable, as anyone who has walked at the intersection of sand and water can identify. Yes, it indeed seems quite foolish to build one’s house on sand. And, as Jesus points out, it is equally foolish for us to hear his words and not put them into practice. Let’s let that one sink in like our feet on the shoreline.
Bearing in mind the immediate context of Jesus’ statement (the Sermon on the Mount), I can already find examples in my own life of hearing but not doing: seeking out splinters while ignoring my own planks, not living like the lilies, keeping my cheek right where it is. The truth is, sometimes it’s hard to build on the solid rock, to truly hear and put into practice the words of Jesus. Those words demand something—well, everything—from us. But it helps me to view it through the lens of wisdom versus foolishness. Do I want to be wise? Then I’ll seek to live out Jesus’ commands. And I’ll let trips to the beach and sandy toes remind me that doing otherwise is just plain foolish.
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