June 2009
The Pond, the Foundation and the Fireplace Chimney
John 14:1-3.
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (2) In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also”
In the town in which I am employed as a school bus driver, there is a park located along the French River. Adjacent to this park is a property that is in the process of being subdivide into housing lots with some of these lots fronting the river itself. As you walk down the access road to these lots and proceed to its end, you come across another smaller pond that sits away from the river. Overlooking this pond on a well situated hilltop is an overgrown stone fireplace chimney and foundation on which a house had never been built. The location of this would-be home is beautiful and the spot in which this foundation and chimney sits was well chosen. I could vision a quaint snug cabin setting on this foundation, with smoke lazily coming from its chimney. From its location I saw the sun shinning down upon the pond through the trees along the shore, watched the fish jumping, and heard the birds singing. I was moved to break out in a song of praise and thanksgiving to God for the beauty of His creation.
But I was also moved to marvel why this house was never built and the pretty stone fireplace never used to warm the one who had it erected. Whoever owned this land and began to build this cabin never completed it. Whatever dream he had, never came to fruition. It reminded me that life lived under the curse of the fall is often full of crushed hopes, unfulfilled dreams and unfinished projects. For some, what starts out as a dream, becomes just an unfinished, painful disappoint. It also reminded me of the words of the Apostle James:
“Go to now, ye that say, Today or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: (14) Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (15) For that ye [ought] to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that (James 4:13-15).
Psalm 75:5-7 also says:
“Lift not up your horn on high: speak [not with] a stiff neck. (6) For promotion [cometh] neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. (7) But God [is] the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another".
We must never forget, that all that we are and what we are able to accomplish in this life, is because of the gracious goodness and providence of God. Paul says to the church at Corinth:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which [was bestowed] upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
If you have your proverbial cabin by the lake and the fulfillment of many of life’s aspirations, hopes and dreams, give God all the credit and thanks.
Let us also never forget that there is a promise that Jesus makes to all who believe in Him that will make the best cabin on a beautiful lake look like a hovel beside a puddle and the biggest mansion a dilapidated shack. It is a promise that will make the poorest saint and the biggest failure of life’s dreams and aspirations eternally rich, successful, prosperous, and happy beyond one’s boundless imagination. It includes an eternal mansion beyond ones wildest dreams and guaranteed royal service of none other then the King of King’s and Lord of Lord’s himself in His eternal presence. When you leave this life believing in the one who made it, you will forever forget the empty foundation and homeless hearth of life’s most bitter sorrows, disappointments and failures. No matter what your life’s accomplishments may or may not be, or the weight and magnitude of your sins, by simply believing in the one who made this promise you can make it eternally yours. Jesus said in John 14:1-6:
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (2) In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also. (4) And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. (5) Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? (6) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:1-6).
Jim Wenger |
