Yesterday, I read a post by another member I follow about hidden gems, stories stored away and unread for years. Here is my hidden gem, Sandcastles. I don’t know how long ago I wrote this short story. I’ve been thinking about this one for a while now. I hope you enjoy it. Everything I write is Christian fiction except for my Bible studies.

SANDCASTLES

            Tyler laid his bike on the beach and went over to where Austin was doing something with the sand. “I’ve been looking for you. I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out at the mall. Your mom said I would find you here. What are you doing?”

            Austin squinted up at him against the sun. “I’m making a sandcastle. Who’s going to be at the mall?”

            Tyler looked at how close he was to the water. “Just the guys, you know. The water will wash your sandcastle away before you can get it started.”

            “I’ve got a plan. I learned something interesting in Sunday school today.”

            Tyler squatted on his knees and watched him dig a trench. “About sandcastles?”

            “No. Not sandcastles. I don’t think hanging out at the mall is a good thing. What do you do there? Meet other kids, stand around, talk about girls, and then what? Get asked to leave by the people who work in the various stores, and people look at you like you’re gonna make off with their kids. I’ve got better things to do than that.”

            Tyler watched him dig out the trench around a large area. “Like being here making sandcastles?”

            “I’ve been thinking about what I learned in Sunday school and thought I would work it out.”

            “So, if you didn’t learn about sandcastles, then what?”

            “It was how we can hide our sins.”

            “You hide them in the sand?”

            “No. Why don’t you go to church anymore?”

            “It’s not for me.”

            Austin looked up at Tyler a sad look on his face. “You used to like church and Sunday school. We had such good times together, but you haven’t been since we entered high school? Do you think that because you’re older you don’t need God anymore?”

            “My dad said it’s just a crutch people who don’t know any better use to make them think they’re better than they are. He said I didn’t have to go. He doesn’t have any problems. Besides, the Bible says that rich people are losers.”

            “Show me. Abraham was rich. So was Job. I think he was wealthier than Abraham.”

            “That’s in the Old Testament. That doesn’t count.”

            “Why not?”

            “Because people have changed and that was at the beginning of things. You had to be rich back then.”

            Austin looked up at Tyler again and shook his head. “God hasn’t changed though, and the Bible hasn’t changed. It says God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It’s man that changes and thinks he doesn’t need God anymore.”

            “Still, my ole man says people throw their money away to the church thinking they’re going to get rich doing that. Besides, I remember the story of the rich young ruler. God told him to sell everything he had and follow him. Jesus wanted him to be poor, so only poor people followed him. I intend to be rich some day.”

            “You haven’t been in church or Sunday school since you were twelve. You listen to all that talk at school, and what your father says, but they’re wrong, so is your father. It’s not just in the Old Testament that people were rich, and Jesus didn’t tell the rich young ruler to sell everything he had so he would be poor. Besides, Lazarus was rich. Jesus loved him, and when he died, he raised him back to life so He could spend time with him.”

            “So if Jesus didn’t want him to be poor by selling everything he had, what did he want him to do?”

            “He wanted him to know what he trusted and believed in. The rich young ruler believed and trusted in his riches not God.”

            Tyler thought about that while as he watched Austin make his sandcastle. First, he dug a trench all around the area he wanted to build it. He built it low on one side of the trench and high on the other so that the water wouldn’t come near the sandcastle.

            He watched him build it up, and watched the water fill the trench, but it couldn’t go over the wall he had built to protect where he would build his sandcastle.  Then he collected some rocks, stones, small twigs, and paper. With his pail, he got a bucket full of sand and water and heaped it into the middle. He layered the bottom with the rocks and stones he found. He put a flat layer, then sand over that, then another layer of rocks and stones. When he was satisfied, he started to build up the walls.

            “This is the foundation. It’s built on the rocks,” said Austin.

            “I see that.”

            “Everyone needs a foundation in their life. If I make this sandcastle only on sand the water will come and wash it away, and it will be gone because it has nothing to keep it from being destroyed.”

            “Yeah, so?” Tyler continued to watch him build the walls of the sandcastle. He used water to help keep it together and make it hard so it wouldn’t fall apart when the sun dried it.  “So, you learned about the two men who built their houses, one on the sand, the other on the rock?”

            “No. The sandcastle is our life. When we build it on the right foundation, it will last a long time. I used rocks for the foundation. Do you know why?”

            “Yeah, I know, because Jesus is the Rock.” Tyler congratulated himself with the right answer. “So, if it’s not that story, then what?”

            “Jesus is the Rock of our salvation, but there’s a lot more to it.”

            Tyler looked confused. When he went to Sunday school and church, he learned that Jesus was the Rock, and he had to build his life on it. “So, what more is there?”

            Austin didn’t answer as he finished one wall, and went to get more sand and water. He sat in the middle of the sandcastle as he built the next wall. All the while, the water washed into the trench and washed back out to sea.

            “These are walls we build in our lives. They can be walls that keep the enemy out, or they can be walls of bondage. What kind of walls have you built in your life?”

            Tyler knew the answer. He knew that since he stopped going to church and Sunday school things just weren’t the same. He liked hanging out with his father, and the kids at school, and doing cool things, but he felt empty like none of it had any meaning. “I have fun with my friends, and I get to spend more time with my dad.”

            “Is spending time with your friends and your dad worth losing your salvation over?”

            Tyler knew the answer to that too. “So, what are those walls to you?”

            Austin finished the back wall of the castle, poured water over it to solidify it, and stepped out of his creation. “These walls keep the enemy out. These walls hear my prayers, and my praises. The water that covers the walls represents the blood that covers me and keeps me on the right path. The water that comes in from the sea is the enemy that wants to come in like a flood and take me away from God.”

            Tyler watched as he worked on the other wall, and thought about what it had been like to go to church and Sunday school every week. He remembered how much he liked the stories and the songs and couldn’t wait to get home and tell his dad and mom about the service. Mom had been happy for him, but Dad just ignored him. He wanted his dad to pay attention to him, so he stopped going to church and listened to what he told him about church and God.

            He knew what his walls were. They kept the enemy in and God out. Still, he hesitated as he watched him build the sandcastle. “Why is the inside hollow?”

            “That is the special place. That’s where we enter in and sing praises to God.”

            Tyler had a sudden understanding of the whole project. He knew when Austin finished the wall he would build the front with a big door in it. One of the verses from his days in Sunday school stuck with him. ‘Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.’

            Austin finished the front, and the door was in place just as Tyler expected. He stood back from it, his feet in the water as it tried to wash away his handiwork. At the top of each turret, he had a flag made of the twigs and paper. Each piece of paper he had written one of the fruits of the Spirit.

            “When you enter through the Door, which is Jesus, with thanksgiving for what He has done for you, you must praise Him. You can’t do anything else because He has taken all the things you’ve done wrong and washed them in His blood and set you free from the law of sin and death.”

            “I thought when you got into high school you didn’t need God anymore. That it was just for little kids like my dad said.”

            “Your dad never met Jesus as his Savior, or trusted anyone but himself for everything in his life. I’ve watched the way it’s been with you the last few years and I’ve been praying for you to come back to Jesus. I have liked to do many things since we got into high school. Do you know they voted me the captain of the football team? I still go places and do things. I just do the things I know God likes and stay away from those things that would make my life a complete washout, like going to the mall and just hanging out.”

            “No, I didn’t know. That’s great. So is it too late to say I’m sorry and come back to Jesus?”

            “You know the answer to that, and that was what the sermon was today. It was all about James 5:19-20. It says that if we can show someone the error of his ways, we can cover a multitude of sins. When you come back to Jesus, He covers your sins with His blood so that the Father doesn’t see them anymore and you are back in right standing with God, just as if you had never been separated from Him in the first place.”

            Tyler stood with Austin in the water at the edge of the sandcastle. They held hands as Tyler recommitted his life to God. He felt the change immediately and vowed never to walk away from God again.

Image courtesy of Pixabay