Sandcastles

A little boy is on the beach. He packs the sand with plastic shovels into a bright red bucket. Then he upends the bucket and a sandcastle is created. A man is in his office. He shoves papers into stacks & delegates assignments. Numbers are juggled, contracts are signed & a profit is made.

Two builders – two castles.

They see nothing & make something. And for both the tide will rise & the end will come. Yet, that is where the similarities cease.

For the boys sees the end, while the man ignores it. Watch the boy as the dusk approaches. As the waves near, the wise child begins to clap. There is no sorrow. No fear. No regret. He new this would happen. He is not surprised. And when the great breaker finally crashes upon his castle & his masterpiece is sucked into the sea, he smiles, picks up his tools, takes his father’s hand & goes home.

The grown-up however, is not so wise.

As the wave of years collapses on his castle he is terrified. He hovers over the sandy monument he protected. He blocks the waves from the walls he has made. Salt-water soaked & shivering he scowls at the incoming tide. ‘It is my castle’, he defies. The ocean need not respond. Both know to whom the sand belongs…

And I do not know much about sandcastles. But children do. Watch them & learn.

Go ahead & build, but build with a child’s heart. When the sun sets & the tides take – applaud.

Salute the process of life, then take your Father’s hand, and go home.

‘All the things I had toiled for… I must leave …To the one who comes after me.’

Ecclesiastes 2:18 NIV