Sand dunes are found throughout the world, reaching from coastal areas into faraway, arid deserts. Perhaps the great Sahara Desert of Africa, called the harshest desert on earth, is the one most well-known. However, we will just look at a few in North America. Many of these are beautiful, with their rippled surfaces and piles of sand several hundred feet high.
Sand dunes move, but the whole dune doesn’t move at one time. Its movements are the result of individual grains of sand being blown by the wind up to the top of an existing formation and then spilling down the other side. In heavy winds, this blowing sand looks like a thin sheet of water coming off the top. In this way a dune “travels” and will sometimes cover a roadway, a farmer’s land or a forest of tall trees. But more often the wind eventually changes direction and blows the sand back to its original point or somewhere nearby.
Many of the North American sand dunes are found along the Atlantic Coast, from Florida to New England, including the one called “Florida Scrub.” This one is composed of age-old dunes formed by sand washed in from the ocean over many, many years, and then blown into dunes by wind.
One of the largest dune areas is known as the Algodones Dunes — almost 50 miles long — stretching between California, Arizona and Mexico, with mounds of sand up to 300 feet high. Another area of large dunes in California is at Death Valley. There the Eureka Dunes rise some 700 feet above the hot desert and are among the tallest dunes in North America. If you make the difficult climb to the top of the dunes, you may be rewarded with more than a beautiful view. If the sand is totally dry, you may hear what sounds like a deep note from a pipe organ, or the distant hum of a small plane. They don’t know why this happens, but it may have something to do with sand blowing against surface sand as it heads down the face of the dune.
The Bible verse above speaks of a foolish man building his house on sand, and when the storms came, it fell, because the sand was not solid. But two verses before that tell us of a wise man building his house safely upon a rock where storms could not harm it.
This is something to really think about. It reminds us that as we go through life, we need a good foundation, which can only be found if we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. Trusting in Him gives us a sure foundation, not only for this life, but for life that we can have forever. Are you building your life on that precious Rock ... or are you building your life on sand?
(to be continued)
Messages of God’s Love 8/29/2021