The Sunday Sermonette – Forever and Never Ending.

     As I watched the news coverage of the tornadic fires in California and the biblical flooding in North Carolina, I could not help but think of the days following the great storm of 2005, which struck the Mississippi Gulf Coast with its own apocalyptic demon of destruction. In all three instances, people’s livelihoods were destroyed. Their homes, repositories of bittersweet memories, family heirlooms, and scrapbooks, were obliterated. Lives were irrevocably changed. Friends and loved ones were either injured or killed.  

     In the days following the storm, I returned to my apartment on Gulfport’s 2nd Street. As I did, I stopped to investigate the ruins of my dear church, First Baptist. Struggling through mountains and valleys of jagged, broken pews, collapsed walls, soggy carpet, shattered pieces of stained glass, and once-glittering chandeliers, the sound of fluttering paper caught my attention. There, lying on the muddy floor, was a muddy Bible, its pages barely readable. In the cloudy sunlight, I saw the words, The Crucifixion. Tears filled my eyes.

     Struggling forward and home to 2nd Street, myriad thoughts raced through my mind. I was stunned by the devastation that reached out to me, the smell of rot and decay that surrounded me, and the eerie, whispering silence that rang in my ears. These memories came calling once again when I saw families and individuals in California and North Carolina collapse in tears upon seeing the ruins of their homes and businesses. Did they think all they’d worked and strived for would last forever? As many of us did in 2005?    

     I then remembered the muddy Bible in the ruins of FBC. It was eventually gobbled up by a bulldozer during the cleanup following the great storm. Its leather cover, the ink on its soggy pages, and the silk ribbon used to mark one’s place all went to a dump site in the woods of south Mississippi. Nothing lasts forever. Or does it?

     In this fragile world, where houses crumble, governments rise and fall, and our mortal bodies decay, there is one constant. The ancient words of Father God—those we commit to memory and cherish in our hearts—remain unchanged. Their message of salvation is as steadfast as ever. No fire or hurricane can take them from us.

     As it is written in the Book of 1st Peter, “The word of the Lord endures forever.” These words are eternal, just as the followers of Christ and Father God will be.

     Ponder this and go forward.