Foundations

We came off the freeway and followed the route the sat nav dictated. Heading west, out onto the Palos Verdes peninsula, roads increasingly rural despite our position geographically right in Los Angeles. We passed horse ranches which sparked memories of stories my dad told. Growing up in this beautiful area in the 1930s, he and his brother used to rent horses here and ride bareback in those halcyon days before the world discovered Southern California. Rural landscape soon gave way to ocean views, breathtakingly beautiful.
The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Houses perched here, beautiful though they are, sit on a cats cradle of earthquake faults. Everything seems secure but one day things will shift.
I admire the gorgeous scenery and quiet oasis in the bustling city, but think of the foundation Jesus is to us and am grateful there are no faults undermining our security in him.
We gathered round a thanksgiving table, Vietnamese who suffered and fled their homeland as refugees decades ago, an Iranian who moved to New York decades ago for a new life, Scots and Americans who once came from elsewhere. Grateful for those who welcome the lost, the refugee, the poor. Grateful for friends and family. Grateful to God.