Sandcastles

 

Geoff writes:

Castles are meant to be all about permanence, durability, strength. But for most of us, our first encounter with a castle was the exact opposite – building a sandcastle on a childhood holiday!

 

Sandcastles didn’t last long, as many a child’s tears have testified. If the feet of fellow holidaymakers or seaside donkeys didn’t bring down our carefully crafted towers and battlements, the tide would do the job.

 

I suspect there is something of King Cnut in every child. I loved to pile up ramparts of sand in the face of the advancing waves, to watch the first stream of water flood into the moat and flow back, repulsed by my handiwork.

 

But of course the smallest child soon learns that it is only a matter of time, no matter how fervently he or she shovels fresh sand onto the crumbling walls, before the rising water floods in and a hasty retreat must be made through the cold water, back to the family picnic blanket.

 

To everything there is a season ……a time to build up, a time to break down.

(Ecclesiastes 3 v5 – Pete Seeger’s paraphrase from the words of ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’)

 

In the Bible God reminds us time after time that human endeavours are not meant to last forever.

 

But that does not make them meaningless. We are each granted our time in the sunshine, to do what we can for as long as we can – and to trust that, when the time comes, we can still retreat with dignity. Our God will be waiting for us with a big, warm dry beach towel.