Prodigal:  What a nice bridge that is!

 

Me:  Very nice, but it is not like the Golden Gate Bridge.  I have been to the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

Prodigal:  I have not been yet.

 

Me:  Well let me tell you a story about it.

 

Dr. Earl Palmer described the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

I have often though of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco as our city’s boldest structure in that its great south pier rests directly upon the fault zone of the San Andreas Fault.  That bridge is an amazing structure of both flexibility and strength.  it is built to sway some twenty feet at the center of its one-mile suspension span.  The secret to its durability is its flexibility that   enables the sway, but that is not all.  By design, every part of the bridge–its concrete roadway, its steel railings, its cross beams–is inevitably related from one welded joint to the other up through the vast cable system to two great towers and two great land anchor piers.  The towers bear most of the weight, and they are deeply embedded into the rock foundation beneath the sea.  In other words, the bridge is totally preoccupied with its foundation.  This is its secret!  Flexibility and foundation.  In the Christian life, it is the forgiveness of the gospel that grants up our flexibility; and it is the Lord of the gospel who is our foundation.

 

And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

Matthew 6:16

 

Jennifer Van Allen

 

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org