Gingerbread house with grandchildren

All of us who were raised in Sunday school sang the song about the foolish man and the wise man who each built a house, one on the sand, the other on a rock. As we enthusiastically did the hand motions, pounding our fists to imitate hammers and wiggling our fingers for rain, we couldn’t wait for the foolish man’s house to go, “Smash!” The bigger our claps, the better.

The last verse of the song says, “Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ… and the blessings will come down.” As a child I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but now I know.

The story of the wise and foolish builders was originally told by the master story-teller, Jesus, in Matthew 7. He was illustrating a critical principle: as the foundation goes, so goes the house.

When all 7 of my grandchildren were staying with us recently, Louisa undertook an interesting building project with the 5 kiddies old enough to participate: a gingerbread house.

I admired her pluck in attempting to manage a mob of youngsters along with bags of icing and bowls of candy, but she eagerly initiated it. In this case, the little house was all made of gingerbread, including its foundation. But it didn’t need to stand through any storm bigger than 10 little hands picking at it over the next few days.

As it turned out, that finger-picking was all it took to ultimately make the little gingerbread house fall. Apparently cookies and candies don’t make very good building materials.

When Jesus told his story about the wise and foolish men, his obvious point was that we should build our lives on a foundation that will continue to stand through any storm. He, of course, was and is that life-foundation for anyone who so chooses. Those who build on anything else eventually learn that turbulent circumstances carve away their foundation, putting them at risk for a fall. Or, as Jesus put it, for “a great fall.” (v. 27)

But he was making another point in this story, too. Before he got started he said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be…” wise.

He was saying, “I’m dishing out the truth here, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll buy what I’m about to say.”

He also detailed the flip side: “Anyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is foolish.” (v. 26) So if we’re sensible, we’ll build our lives on the Lord, not on money, reputation, possessions, behavior, or anything else that seems like good building materials at the time, but in a storm will surely crumble….