SANDCASTLES!

We pondered many things together, my brother and I, in Myrtle Beach, SC, last week.

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.

And we couldn’t help but concur with the two protagonists in Carroll’s poem (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872) …

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
“If this were only cleared away,”
They said, “It would be grand!”

It would! Indeed! As the sage Erma Bombeck noted, that’s what beach vacations are for: to occupy ourselves keeping the sand off our belongings, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sun off our skin. (Especially when you are a dermatologist.)

Anyhow, we pondered much (among other exciting activities that we undertook).

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings.”

Well, we didn’t quite get that carried away in our musings and ruminations. But we did consider building sandcastles. And then thought the better of it. Why bother with things that get washed away so soon?

Almost like the days of our lives.

All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory
like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls off ….
1 Peter 1:24

Brief are our days here. Fleeting. Fading.

For all our days have
declined in Your fury;
we have finished our years like a sigh.
As for the days of our life,
they contain seventy years,
or if due to strength, eighty years,
yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
for soon it is gone and we fly away.
Psalm 90:9–10

And all the intricate contortions we get into—sandcastles. The chasing after the impermanent—sandcastles. The illusory concoctions of our dreams—sandcastles!

You turn man back into dust and say,
“Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in Your sight
are like yesterday when it passes by,
or as a watch in the night.
You have swept them away
like a flood, they fall asleep;
in the morning they are like grass
which sprouts anew.
In the morning it flourishes
and sprouts anew;
toward evening
it fades and withers away.
Psalm 90:3–6

Sandcastles! May the Lord give us wisdom to focus on eternal things, the things of God.

So teach us to number our days,
that we may present to You
a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12

Wisdom to build castles that remain—built on the Rock. Wisdom to chase after the only One worth chasing—God, and God alone. Wisdom to catch not ephemeral and insubstantial dreams, but Reality—reality based upon the Word of God.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God
stands forever.
Isaiah 40:8

Lord, give us wisdom! And were it not for Your sustenance, strength, and succor, our lives would indeed be spent as a vapor. Sandcastles!

For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.
But the lovingkindness of the LORD
is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who fear Him ….
Psalm 103:14, 17

That’s what I need to seek. Lovingkindness for eternity. Not castles in the sand. So may I learn to walk in godly fear the rest of my brief days here.