Photo: Griffin Contracting, Pooler, Georgia.

We have been studying First Corinthians in our Sunday School class, a letter in which Paul is very rich in his use of metaphors.  "Building a foundation" is one of them -- analagous to building ourselves into a strong community and as a temple for God's spirit with Jesus as our cornerstone. 

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ... Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? ... God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. -- 1 Corinthians 3:11, 16-17.

My friend Jocelyn recently published a blog post for our church's website that referred to these verses.  She asked in her post, "Are we building on solid rock? Or on flimsy sand?"

Photo: Community of Faith, Herndon, Virginia.

She wrote "This was a subject of an Adult Sunday School class one Sunday.  For a while, I forgot about it, but after a few days, an image came to me about a foundation. An image of a sturdy, concrete slab. Solid.  And I'm planted in the middle of it. I'm in the center of it and I'm not to the side of it, to the left or to the right side.  Instead, I'm planted in the middle."

Photo: The Real Estate Inspection Company, San Diego, California.

"This tells me that I should not be double-minded or wavering about my thoughts, about my beliefs, but I should be planted on something that's solid... [in] things that will last eternally."

Photo: "Overpass III"  (Philip Rink, Jr. Baltimore, Maryland.) 

I am thankful for Jocelyn's testimony and the beautiful thought of us all being planted solidly, together, in the word of God, on a rock that will last forever.