Sandbags and Good Deeds

Reading the newspapers earlier this week I came across a small column pointing out the limits of sandbags.  Some parts of Scotland have really escaped the severe rain and wind.  The ground isn’t saturated and there has been very little in the way of flooding.  The River Ness has held its course, perhaps intimidated by the river’s flood defences currently being built. Friends who have a house that looks out onto the river have been issued with sandbags just in case of a flood.

The woman in the article said there were much better ways of defending a home.  Sandbags are, by nature, porous.  Given enough time the water will filter through and the house will be flooded.  Far better, she said, to invest in a metal panel of some kind that could be fixed over the door and along the base of the house.  That would certainly stop the water flooding through.  It may not be as cheap as a sandbag, or as easily portable, but it would be far more effective
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A picture came to mind as I was reading about people piling sandbags in front of the door to protect their property from a flood.  The sandbags they trusted were not really that trustworthy at all.  I thought about what other things people were piling up in the hope they would be safe from another kind of flood. 

Sandbags and Good Deeds

A sandbag is a useless aid

Against the rising tide

You pile them up a hundred high

Behind the wall you hide

But sand can never stop the flood

And water filters through

Sandbags never will defend

The home that’s dear to you

A good deed is a useless aid

Against the judgement tide

You pile them up a hundred high

Behind such goodness hide

But good deeds are inadequate

Before God’s sovereign throne

The cross of Christ’s the only key

That claims you as His own