Years ago, from the bedroom window of our home in San Francisco, my wife and I could see the Golden Gate Bridge and watch ships pass beneath it—a scene never short of striking. And every weekday, I left our home and took the bridge to work at a seminary set above and between the scenic California towns of Tiburon and Sausalito. Sharing that magnificent view, the hillside was dotted with mansions of myriad shapes and designs. Even so, high on the Sausalito side, one house stood out. Dramatically secured on two metal beams, this house's all-glass front section jutted from the mountainside for an untrammeled view of the bay. From my roadway perspective, that house was a vision in brick and glass. And, yes, covetous thoughts appeared.

Then one day, "the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house" (Matt. 7: 27). Neither my wife nor I had ever seen a storm this severe; even the Golden Gate Bridge swayed. Sheets of rain slammed again and again, and kept slamming. One morning during a storm lull, I looked up toward that house. To my shock, its foundation had given way. The commanding house of my morning drives was buckled and broken. Furniture and personal possessions littered the hillside. Days later, driving to work, I saw the horror on my fellow commuters' faces. And I remembered the last phrase of the Sermon on the Mount: "And the house fell and great was the fall of it."

House builders have an advantage. They know their projects from the ground up. We life builders, on the other hand, frequently fail to lay resilient foundations in our own lives or the lives of our children. And inevitably, rains come.

As it happened, the Marin County property was much too valuable not to rebuild. No doubt the second building had a much more secure foundation. As it happens, life is even more valuable than houses. But the storms that expose our foundations do something besides buckle and break us. They clear the air and wash away our rootless notions. Stripped of illusions, we can relinquish the entire project to the master builder.

Having endured several post-storm renovations and restorations, I'm acquainted with the Master Builder. And I can say this: When he is the cornerstone, the foundation is sure. And every building he builds, every project he restores, comes with a view that Tiburon and Sausalito's best real estate can't touch.