We played a lot of blocks yesterday. I have a whole bucket full of old wooden blocks, the ones in primary colors that anyone around my age had when they were a kid. Lilli has really enjoyed them this visit, dumping them out into a huge pile and building castles and towers.

We play in my grandkid room (or the playroom as she calls it) and it’s a carpeted room in a tight berber weave, with a thick, giraffe-print rug in the middle. When we first started playing with the blocks, she built them on the rug. It worked okay until someone (either two-legged or four-legged) walked past. One footfall on that rug and the whole structure would collapse. So then I noticed that, on her own, she started building on the carpet. It did work quite a bit better, but although the dogs could pass without incident, she would stand up and because she was so close to the blocks, her own foot would usually bring it down.

Noticing her plight, I suggested that she turn the lid of the block container over where the hard, flat top would meet the carpet, then wedge it between the legs of her table. I showed her how doing this gave her a flat surface to build on, and because it was wedged there, it wouldn’t move. After a couple of successful builds, she could really see the difference.

You know where I’m going with this. This is a pretty basic illustration of an ages-old concept, but it came to mind yesterday when I received bad news from 3 different people. Maybe you’ll remember the original story from an old Sunday School song, the way it always comes back to me…

The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock and the rain came a tumbling down.

Oh, the rain came down and the floods came up, the rain came down and the floods came up, the rain came down and the floods came up, and the wise man’s house stood firm.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand, the foolish man built his house upon the sand, the foolish man built his house upon the sand, and the rain came a tumbling down.

Oh the rain came down and the floods came up, the rain came down and the floods came up, the rain came down and the floods came up, and the foolish man’s house when “splat.”

Those three people, thankfully, are all “wise men.” They’ve built their houses – their lives – on the Rock. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t feel the howling wind and driving rain beating against them when it starts to storm. Their news, all different, ran the gamut from a young life taken by a suicide no one saw coming, to sudden job loss, to a cancer diagnosis after routine maintenance testing. All black storms brewing just outside the scope of view on their radars, but not one – NOT ONE – outside the scope of God’s. With their lives built on Him, the One who saw those storms coming, they don’t have to worry about weathering the storm. The just have to be concerned with clinging to the rock as the storm rages, knowing their foundation isn’t going anywhere. And that right there is a LOT of hope.

There is a tower Lilli built last night, that’s still standing. We didn’t put it away when we cleaned up. It got bumped several times through the course of the evening, and the dog’s tail almost took out the very top of it on one occasion, but it made it through. I know that my friends, though knocked around and probably battered and bruised, will still be standing, too, when their storms finally quiet down.

It’s really all about the foundation. Gotta build on solid ground.

Oh the blessings come down as your prayers go up, the blessings come down as your prayers go up, the blessings go down as your prayers go up, so build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ.

 “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.” Matthew 7:24-27 NIV

“But the Master, God, has something to say to this: