mud, mud, glorious mud

So sang Flanders and Swann: - Mud, mud, glorious mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood; so follow me follow, down to the hollow and there let me wallow in glorious mud! Once, on holiday along with friends, we discovered a source of great fun. From the beach where we were, all you had to do was to go over the sand dunes and there was a lagoon. When the tide was out you were left with pools of thick, black, gooey, warm mud which you could slide in and get absolutely plastered from head to foot. Then you would run back over the dunes past startled sun worshippers and dive into the waves of the sea and wash it all off. It was brilliant!

However mud can be exceedingly dangerous and can lead to tragic results. I will never forget seeing news broadcasters like Cliff Michelmore back in the 60’s reporting in tears from Aberfan in Wales where a rain soaked coal-slag mountain moved down a hill to engulf the school with a loss of many young lives. In our present day try telling the people of Cumbria in Cockermouth that mud is fun. There, as many will have seen, the rivers in full flood eroded away the ground below the supports of the bridges to cause them to collapse. Many people have lost there livelihoods because of the huge torrents of water that swamped the town.

Jesus used similar imagery as this. In Matthew ch7:24-27 he said, ”Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

According to Jesus the foundations of our lives are really important because no matter who we are, the wind and waves, the storms of life, will at some time truly batter us but the good news is that when our lives are built on Jesus and what he says, they will stand. It is also true that storms don’t last for ever. The sun will rise on us. As it says in Psalm 62 v1-2 My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Geoff Lawton, 27/11/2009