A boy and his grandfather were at the beach playing together - as grandfathers and their grandchildren should and sometimes do. They made small boats of paper, and placed them on the sand alongside the water. Then the tide came in, reaching the boats, lifting them, and carrying them delightfully dancing on its ripples.

Make your boat and await the tide! Make your boat and be ready when the tide comes in. We are doing something of this kind when we worship. In worship, we are preparing our hearts for the moving Spirit of God. In worship, we are adjusting the focus of our faith so that we may see the great glory of God when it next appears.

Leave your unfolded sheet of boat-making paper at the water's edge, and when the tide comes, it will be only a sodden mass, soon shredded by the sand. But make a boat of it, and the incoming tide will lift it and set it dancing.

What tides time will bring we do not know. But we know this: when the tide comes, if we are not ready, we're likely to be overwhelmed by it; if we are ready, we will rise with it and ride on its crest. So let's let this time of worship, and every such time, be a time of building boats that can ride the crest of whatever tides may come.