With Father’s Day coming up this weekend, I’ve been thinking of all my best memories of my dear daddy. There are so many to pick from, but when I think of my father’s character – the stuff that made Dad so strong – I cannot help but recall one late Saturday night in June many, many years ago.
Our family was out in the farmhouse and sitting around the table talking after dinner. It was warm and breezy out and we had the windows open. We heard a screech of tires down by the barn and my brother-in-law jumped up to see what was going on. He saw a car speed away down the road and a minute or so later, he saw something else -- a flicker of flame. The barn, it was on fire!
My sister ran to call the fire department and everyone else – my dad included – ran out the door to save the horses that were in their stalls in the barn. By the time the fire trucks arrived, the horses were safe, but the barn was completely engulfed in flames. All we could do was stand back to shield ourselves from the incredible heat. The fire burned through the night, and the next morning there was only smoking ash and rubble.
I watched later that day as my 72-year-old father picked among the charred wood, looking for any of his antique tools that may have survived. But nothing survived. Everything had gone up in smoke. Everything, that is, but the foundation. Daddy walked up to the stone foundation of that old barn and poked at it with his cane. The stones were blackened, but Daddy could tell the foundation had withstood the test – that’s when he turned to us and announced that, yes, he would be able to build a new barn right there atop the same foundation.
I still think of my dad and that burned out barn when I look back on my own life – all the tragedies, all the disappointments, all my dreams up in smoke. All the fiery trials that have burned away the kind of stubble the apostle Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 3. When my accident happened, it burned away so many things I thought were precious in this life, so much stuff I had held on to… and in turn, the Lord laid bare nothing but the raw foundation in my life – it was the foundation my daddy had helped build: a knowledge of the Lord Jesus. That was it, that was all. And I began to build on that foundation. And the building stands today and I pray that when I arrive in heaven, although the stubble will be burned off, much gold, silver, and precious stone will remain.
Friend, I don’t know what fiery trials have happened in your life, but if your foundation has been laid bare, please be careful how you rebuild. My accident taught me to use better building materials – materials of eternal value that would last, things done with a right motive with an eye to God's glory. How about your life? When fiery trials wipe out the things you thought were so precious, I hope you find your foundation still holding – the Rock of Jesus. Then I pray you’ll reach for something that will stand any test in the future. It’s what building on a good foundation is all about and it’s a lesson I learned from my daddy.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends