The Salt of the Earth

Yesterday my daughter Rueleen, Grand-daughter Priscilla, and Great Grand-daughter Ava spent a little time admiring the Pacific Ocean near Newcastle at a place known as “Redhead”.

Being brought up in the country a very long way from the ocean, surfing doesn’t really interest me and in any case the beaches were closed to swimming yesterday as the surf was very rough. However, I admire the ocean with its terrific power and relentless attack on the shore and the cliffs around our land. It never gives up and has earned the respect of most people. You know, I think we can all learn from that because Determination and Consistency are both attributes we all need to develop.

Apart from that, the oceans are one of God’s greatest creations. If they were not designed the way they are, life on earth would be unbearable. You see, all our rivers run into a sea (like the Dead Sea) or an ocean (like the Pacific Ocean) and all the water in these rivers is somewhat polluted and just like the blood in our veins which returns to our Kidneys, Liver and Lungs to be filtered and reconstituted before it is fit to be re-used to vitalise our bodies, so God has arranged for the river water to empty into the Oceans for a similar purpose.

The Ocean water is heavily laced with Salt which is a powerful disinfectant and no matter what pollutants that river water contains the salt will sort it out. Apart from the rivers, many millions of the world’s people like to live near the ocean so all their millions of tons of sewage waste are emptied into that salt water too.

Then, of course the heat of the Sun causes the water to evaporate and usually forms clouds of pure rain water to be returned to the land to revive it and us.

Salt has been given a “bad name” in recent times, but Jesus looked at it from a different angle and said that people who love God and endeavour to love their neighbours the way he told them to, are “the salt of the earth”. Which means that people behaving like that have a cleansing effect on our society by removing a lot of selfish behaviour, cruelty, and the like, thus making our world a better place in which to live. So those who do that and also accept the forgiveness, for past sin, offered by God through Jesus sacrifice for us, are completely cleansed in God’s sight and just as that pure water rises up, invisible to our eyes, to form clouds so they too (when their time here is over) rise up to meet God and Jesus in Heaven just as my lovely wife Audrey did last week. How good is that?

 

Best wishes as you think that through.      Tom.