According to Guinness, in 2017, the world’s largest sand castle was completed in Duisburg, Germany.

A group of artists put their creative engineering skills together and erected a 54 foot 8.7 inch marvel. A few weeks later, the city knocked the beautiful creation down.

Matthew Bennett, professor of environmental and geographical sciences at Bournemouth University, studied the science behind lasting sand castles. The formula to sand castle perfection, he reports, is eight buckets of fine, dry sand to one bucket of water. This, plus the right size tools and simple round buckets are all that are needed for building the most durable castles of sand.

In many ways, people are like castles.

Those built up with bricks of faith stand firm. On occasion, a window may crack, or a door break or some bug traps might be needed, but their hearts endure; their lives stand when the waves come.

On the contrary, strong as they may seem, those who reject God and His building plans for life can’t help but crumble at some point. God doesn’t necessarily knock people down, but “sand castle people” will always fall because their lives are susceptible to calamity.

We can trust God through life’s troubles. He will help us stand strong again.