Lights, Baskets, Rocks, and Sand
I grew up in Sunday School singing “This Little Light of Mine,” with its question: “Hide it under a bushel?” and the resounding “No” in reply.
One day Jesus was teaching by the sea. The crowd was so large that He got into a boat and taught from there. He taught many things in parables, including the parable of the sower and the seed. Later, when Jesus and His disciples were alone, He explained the parable to them. When He finished the explanation, He talked to them about the truth found in that Sunday School song: lamps go on lampstands, not under a basket or under a bed. Jesus also told them:
Take care what you listen to.
Mark 4:24
Not taking care what we listen to is an ancient problem. The first time the Bible uses the word listen is in Genesis 3 when God confronted Adam in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam the consequences he would have to suffer because he listened to his wife, instead of obeying God. God’s Word teaches us how to listen.
We should take care to listen to wise counsel.
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.
Proverbs 12:15
We should listen to reproof.
Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold
Is a wise reprover to a listening ear.
Proverbs 25:12
We should listen to Jesus. Once when Jesus, Peter, James, and John were together on a mountain, God spoke to them in an audible voice:
“This is My Son, My Chosen One;
listen to Him!”
Luke 9:35
We and our children have countless opportunities to listen. Some sounds we hear are useful; some are a waste of time; some are evil. We must take Jesus’ words to heart. We must take care what we listen to.
The contrast between those who take care to listen to Jesus and those who don’t is a stark one. Another song I sang as a child reminds us of that contrast.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and
acts on them, may be compared
to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew
and slammed against that house;
and yet it did not fall,
for it had been founded on the rock.
Everyone who hears these words of Mine
and does not act on them,
will be like a foolish man
who built his house on the sand.
The rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and slammed against that house;
and it fell—and great was its fall.
Matthew 7:24-27
I was not raised in church but had the privilege of going regularly for about a year when I was 10-11 with a family who moved in down the road. They had 4 children and I recall singing these songs as we drove in the car. After that year, these songs were what I had left to reference as well as John 3:16 which my Grandmother had previously taught me, because we did not even have a Bible in my home. I’ve always been thankful that God placed that family in my life for that short time.
I find it quite interesting that Jesus first spoke these truths to adults with such clarity that even children can understand the message–and sing about it!!