Firm Foundation (Matthew 7:24ff)

So we were sitting on the Mount of Beatitudes today under a canopy up the hill from the church. Hutch spoke on the different ways that we as Christians react to culture. Then there was some scripture reading and some singing. The focus wasn't really on anything, just Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. Fitting seeing as we were sitting on the site commemorating that event.
The thing that caught my attention was the story of the man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell down and the floods came up and wind blew and beat against the house, and the house did not fall because it was founded on the rock. It took me to the last...three years of my family's life. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against us. Daddy got sick. Bills came due. We lost Daddy, then we lost the house. More bills. Every time we thought we'd get a period of calm, another storm would rage. I spent two full years just waiting for the fifth, then the sixth and the seventh shoes to fall. Something always happened.
I remember wondering if God enjoyed kicking us while we laid on the floor writhing in pain. I remember feeling guilty for even thinking that. And I remember being amazed that somehow we were still functioning and surviving, and knowing that the only way we were still functioning and surviving was God. Try juxtaposing that! God must be kicking us while we're down because this sucks, but He's the only reason we haven't kicked the bucket yet.
It hit me today why we didn't kick the bucket. Firm foundation. Even the days I thought about being kicked I also thought about the gajillion other things God had gotten us through. It never ceases to amaze me how something like a foundation plays out in life. Today we saw the synagogue at Capernaum. The one you normally see in pictures and postcards is a beautiful limestone building, well half a building anyway. But under the limestone is the foundation of black basalt that dates back to the first century. Foundations remain. Even when the building is gone, foundations remain.
The fact of the matter is that my family survived the lose of father, home, grandfather, various dramatic and traumatic events, financial drought and medical issues in the past three years because God had laid a firm foundation in us. And because of that foundation even on the days we couldn't praise Him in the storm that was raging all around us, we knew He was still there. It is amazing to look back and see the ways that that foundation came through in those days. I remember waking up some days so angry at God I didn't want to get out of bed, and without even knowing what was happening I was up and around and singing some old hymn I didn't even remember learning. I would suddenly realize that I was singing and stop, wondering when I learned the song and when I had started singing it. In those moments, all I had was my foundation. But in those moments all I needed was my foundation. Because of my foundation the rest of me was rained on and nearly drowned and blown hither and yon but did not fall, because I was...I am founded on my Rock, my Redeemer, my ever present Help in time of need, my Singer, my Song, my Lord.