Her excitement was hardly containable.  She was building something grand, with towers, motes and a bridge. The focus was on and with the right water to sand ratio, she knew her success would be glorious.  Having a pile of moist sand, pails to her left and shovels to her right she began to construct the most elaborate sandcastle her eleven year old hands could shape. She has seen in the Disney books how they had more than just one tower, and how high Rapunzel lived, a mental blueprint for her days extravagant adventure.  Her expectations high and the noon day sun higher with lazer focus she built her kingdom from the top down as any new ruler would.

She was completely oblivious to her surroundings.  The little boy with a super soaker in the corner of the beach,  The mom screaming from the top of the beach for her kids to stop heading out into deeper waters, and the highly competitive soccer game being played on the grassy patch beyond the beach.

The final touches went onto the towers (feathers as flags in the tops of the peaks) and the walls delicately fortified (skipping stones neatly arranged on sand).  People began to gather and She then began to notice the OOO's and Ahhh's of her glorious kingdom.  An approving smile from mom, a jealous glare from a neighbor, a kingdom wreckage glance from the super soaker boy. She stood up, three hours older, and backed away for the first time; expectation met, complete self satisfaction... and then it happened... like a mangled road accident in slow motion, we could not look away.

The new kid to the beach, with the flashy soccer ball, and decorated uniform like he had just won the world cup yells "SCORES"!!!  And as planned as a kids soccer kick can be, the ball landed on the highest tower with the most beautiful princess squashed inside.  She screamed.  (the creator, not the created) She cried and became more distraught when she found out it had been the boys plan all along.  As she had planned three hours prior to build this kingdom, he had also made a plan of his own.

There was no apology, no forgiveness train. People scattered back to their regular activities and she stood, attempts of comfort by mom, but not recovered.  She set in her mind to ask that new flashy soccer playing wanna be world cup winner boy, why.

Why?  Why did you break my sandcastle?  The boy, looking really confused told her that her brother (with whom he had been playing soccer with) said she was building something for them to destroy, and as soon as she would step away from it, that would be the secret signal for the bomb to be dropped.  In normal boyish fashion, this is what he had done.

Misunderstanding.  Misunderstood.  That very morning, brother and sister discussed that it would be fun at the end of the day when the beach had been abandoned to clear it of all created kingdoms. Timing. Timing misunderstood.  Not knowing if she would ever recover from this catastrophic loss, she went for a swim.

Timing.  Gods timing.  Plans with Gods timing.  Eager to move forward, to plunge ahead?  Timing. Gods Timing with plans...

Today care for those devastated my misunderstood timing.  Be comforted those of you who can jump ahead.  The wreckers, the followers, the sisters and brothers.  In the family of God broken sandcastles are inevitable. We all live in and through our mistakes, and are affected by others peoples mistakes. Forgive, move on.  Go for a swim and let His refreshing waters awaken your senses and cleanse your body.  Emerge refreshed with the kingdom once again in your sight...

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow...