More Than A Decade Ago, Matt Thom, A Few Help...

More than a decade ago, Matt Thom, a few helpful young teens and me conceived of and set in motion a tree house for our back yard. The tree had a great section where branches came together but it wasn’t large enough for a good side platform. Instead, we placed four 12’ pressure treated 4x4’s around the tree. They were planted 3-4 feet deep and cemented into place. To these ran a set of 2x6 stringers, carriage bolted to the posts.

The end result was a platform that didn’t touch the tree but was amidst the branches. Everything added to it, from the stairway to the sidewalls were accomplished because we had a very solid base from which to build.

How important is a foundation? Psalm 1 tells us that those who are settled and blessed are those who are "planted" in a place where they are constantly fed by God’s word. Jesus describes a foolish and wise builder by the place on which they lay their foundation. Fools would settle for the smooth, fairly stone-free sandy base of the seasonal Wadis which were fine till the seasonal rainfall came. Then they were a lot like Vernonia or Tillamook in a flood. Wise builders put up with rocks, cleared the ground and worked hard to build a house that was out of harm’s way when the creeks rose.

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Let me go back to Psalm 1 to do the work God created us to do is to bear fruit in the proper season. And to do that we are rooted, fed, watered, and made strong by our "delighting in God’s Word" and it is upon this law that we meditate, ponder, and study.

When our foundation is set in Christ we are secure and blessed. The tree house I mentioned at the start is coming down this spring. You see, the tree is splitting and sagging against the fort. Yet the fort still holds because it is rooted well. When the pressures around us fall on us will be a strongly founded on Christ?