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Matt 18:5: “And whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me.” AMP

“Tomorrow I will help you build a sandcastle.”

My two sons stared at me, jaws drooping nearly to their sandals. “You will?”

It was our last camping trip of the summer, and my wife’s love of nature and the love the rest of us shared for the beach brought us to Rock Point Provincial Park, where there is a beautiful balance of both. However, someone had apparently forgotten to tell those who regulate my wife’s activities at work that she was officially “on vacation”, and she was scheduled to go to Toronto the next day for work-related business. This meant that I had the full responsibility of “entertaining” the boys, and I was busy putting together a “plan”! I figured that building a sandcastle together would be just the thing to fill our time! I don’t know what kind of a response I had expected, but certainly not disbelief!

The day arrived, and my wife left for Toronto. The boys attended an organized camp activity in the morning (fossil hunting), and while they were gone, I worked on the class schedule that I had received the previous day. Then we had our lunch, and after packing up plastic buckets and a variety of other intriguing (and sandy!) toys, we soon found our way to the beach.

But when I kneeled down on the sand and started to fill a buck with wet sand, my boys were so amazed, they just sat there for several minutes with their mouths hanging open. Again, to my shame, I suddenly realized that the only time I had ever build sandcastles with them in the past was when they had been too young to walk. More recently, they had only seen me sitting in a beach chair, working! I obviously had some catching up to do!

Finally one of them ventured to say, “Euh . . . papa . . . that’s not how you build a sandcastle! First you wet the bucket, and then you fill it with soft sand.”

Yes, back when I had built sandcastles with them before, their only pleasure had been in smashing the towers as soon as I built them. They wouldn’t remember my special method of building. “Trust me.” I replied.

“It won’t work!”

They were certain that my lack of experience in building sandcastles was about to catch up to me, but when a perfect sand tower appeared from the bucket, they stared at me in amazement. “How did you do that??!!”

“Euh… It’s a secret of my trade,” I replied. “I learned to make sandcastles when I was your age and was playing with other kids on the beaches of Europe.”

Suddenly, instead of looking at me as some ignorant kid needing to be instructed in the art of sandcastles construction, they saw me as some kind of an expert in the field. “Can you do it again?” they asked. “Can you teach us how?”

I smiled ruefully, feeling very remorseful for not having spent more time building sandcastles with them in the past. “Sure.”

And we all set out to work together. As time went by, we each found our “niche”. Donovan was the moat builder specialist, Darien was the wall expert, and I was the tower whiz. Together, we made a perfect trio in the art of sandcastle building, and two hours later, a beautiful sandcastle stood in the sand. It had eleven towers, the walls were inlaid with rocks and pebbles, and it was encircled by a moat with a canal leading straight to the lake. “This looks like a cross between Helm’s Deep and Edrias!” exclaimed Donovan, who had just finished reading the Lord of the Rings. “It’s great!” Then our fellow “beachers” began stopping by to admire the castle. It sure felt good, especially since it was a work that we had all shared in.

“Let’s take a picture! ” suggested one of the boys. But we couldn’t. The camera was in the van, and the van was somewhere between Rock Point Provincial Park and Toronto! We would have to hope that no one would destroy it before my wife returned. The boys generously offered to stay and watch over it, but I had to remind them that she wouldn’t be back until late. “You can’t stay out here until then!” I said.

“Then we will stay as long as we can.”

And they did. They stayed until the growling of their stomachs drove them back to camp for supper. Later, as we were walking to the camp store for ice cream, we stopped at the beach to inspect our work. A few kids were playing with the castle, pouring water in the moats and generally having a great time. How my kids’ faces beamed!

During worship that evening, both of my boys said that they had experienced Jesus when we all worked together to build the castle. But my youngest son’s comment nearly broke my heart: “I didn’t believe it when you said you would build a sandcastle with us. You always work. I thought you were joking.”

By the time my wife finally returned from Toronto, it was far too dark for pictures, but early in the morning we all rushed to the beach. Unfortunately, the lake had grown wild during the night, and untamed waves pounded our castle. It was a miracle that three of the towers and their interconnecting walls were still intact.

“Your castle is still standing!” a passerby remarked.

Both of my kids smiled broadly, but my smile was bigger than theirs. It felt so good to have been a part of their lives for this simple activity that had meant so much to them.

A page of my life turned that weekend. I decided that the days of making work more important than my children, my wife, my friends, and my students were gone. I had to start living my life in a way that showed that others were more important than myself. In all reality, I had to start living like Jesus. He NEVER put his own needs above the needs of others. He even DIED so that we could have eternal life. And if others were so important to Jesus, why should work be more important to me? Shouldn’t I be following Jesus’ example instead?

Friends and fellow parents, how much quality time do YOU spend with YOUR kids? We are all assailed by the immensity of our daily work, but we all have to remember that our work will erode with time. You may be the best principal in town, but as soon as you retire, people will forget your achievements. You may have won gold in the Olympics, but a few years from now someone will beat your record and your name will eventually be forgotten. You may be a renowned journalist, your stories making the front page every day. However the time will come when people will not even remember your name. Work and its achievements have but temporary effects that are soon forgotten among the many memories of the past. The only lasting thing is the relationships we build. When your time has come, what will people remember about you?

Do you make time for your children? Or is work keeping you away from lasting memories? How will you be remembered?

1 John 4:19: “We love because he first loved us.” NIV

Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “Building a Fabulous Sandcastle” devotional series, please click here.)