As I sit looking out of the window at the trees being whipped by storm Dennis, close on the tail of Ciara, I am reminded back to when my daughter was small and she revealed a deep fear of natural disasters.
I saw a man interviewed about storm Dennis in the Borders of Scotland who described the rainfall there as “biblical”.
As we live at the top of a hill, it would truly have had to be rainfall of biblical proportions that would have fulfilled my daughter’s fears.
And yet, the fear of things we can’t control is a very real thing.
Jesus told a story in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 7, about two houses where the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against
them.
One stood firm whilst the other tumbled down; one was built on a solid foundation, the rock; and the other on sand.
Seeing the pain of homes and livelihoods ruined in the flooding from Dennis and Ciara leads us to the point Jesus was making.
It can be devastating when we lose everything: homes, possessions, jobs; but Jesus is pointing us to the hope that he brings that when everything around us crumbles, we can be assured of his love and our place in heaven with him.
We need to build our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.
He gives us this opportunity by dying on the cross that we might be reconciled with God our maker and have that assurance of life eternal with him.
If you want to know more, Christ Church is running a Christianity Explored course in March.
Ian Stewart is a member of Christ Church, Wokingham, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
