Recently we spent a day at the beach and watched with interest the children building castles in the sand. One particular sand castle was huge and quite elaborate. Several children were diligently at work when we stopped to admire their creation. They explained that they had spent over three hours creating their beautiful castle and it was evident that they were quite proud of their accomplishment.

As we watched these children busily building their castle we thought that surely much of what we do must appear in God’s sight as children building sand castles. At the moment their creation looked quite secure since it was low tide, but just as the tide goes out, it will surely return, and when it does it will erase the work of these children. It was late in the evening when these children finally finished their castle but by the morning light there was no evidence that they had ever been there.

When one has an opportunity to visit the ruins of ancient civilizations the same kinds of thoughts come to mind. Ur of the Chaldees was a thriving city when Abraham lived there but now it is a heap of ruins. Babylon was the pride and joy of Nebuchadnezzar but he and his beautiful city have moldered into dust.
What did the people who lived then do? They worked hard. They built beautiful cites and although their ruins lasted longer than ’the children’s sand castles, their labor did them no more lasting good than did the children’s efforts. We can imagine what it would have been like to be in Babylon on a Friday afternoon at rush hour time, hustle and bustle everywhere. Men were finishing up their week’s work while the wives were busy preparing dinner, since they were having important guests over for the evening. Everyone was so busy and all they were doing seemed so important! As we stand among their ruins it becomes evident to us that what they were doing wasn’t really so important after all.

For children to make castles in the sand is fun but what a waste of effort and talent if they should devote their entire lives to building sand castles. No one expects children to do this but certainly from God’s viewpoint most of the world is busily engaged in activities that have no lasting value.

Jesus paints us a picture of how things were in the past and how it will be when he comes. He graphically shows us that most people will be just like the little children busily engaged in building their sand castle. He tells us ”As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”

Now it certainly is not a sin to eat or to buy something or to plant or build, but that’s all they did! They had no time for God. Their whole life was filled with the things of this world which is a sin punishable by death.

What are we doing that will stand in the day of Christ’s coming? Paul tells us that we are all builders. What are we building? He tells us some build with gold, silver and precious stones and some build with wood, hay and stubble. What we are building will be made manifest when Christ comes. Our money in the bank, our homes, cars and businesses won’t be worth a thing then. These things are not sin unless they are all we have. If these are all we have then we are spiritually destitute and the end is oblivion.

Build on the foundation of Christ those things that will last, says Paul. In Nehemiah’s day the people became inspired to work and they said, ”Let us rise up and build!” Now is the time for us to rise up and build for Christ.