THE OCEAN HAS A PLUG HOLE!
We have just come back from walking on the sea-shore, over at Caloundra, a beach near us. There were dogs and families having lots of fun. We saw a little boy and his mother splashing in the shallows, they were laughing and happy! Then the little boy got an awful fright! He sang out, “Mum, look there’s the plug! The sea will all go down the plug hole if anyone pulls it out!” He was quite upset. We went and looked at what he was yelling about, and sure enough there was something under the water close to the shore that looked just like a big plug - like a bath plug stuck in the sand on the bottom! It was about the size of a dinner plate, with a metal ring in the middle just a like a plug has. Coming from the ring was a length of cord which had a floater on the end, so that the cord could float near the surface. Well, we adults knew that it wasn’t a plug that could let all the water get out if it was pulled. Nonsense!
But what was it? Do you know? We didn’t.

We went climbing on the rocks and came back sometime later.
A surf scooter came zooming in with a roar. The man riding it jumped off, and he tied the surf scooter to the big plug thing. It was a sort of anchor that the owner tied his scooter to, to stop it drifting away. Silly us, we had never seen such a thing before. Still I reckon that little boy could be forgiven for thinking it was plug alright. We saw huge container ships today as well, coming from Japan probably, or some Asian countries.Three of them went by when we were there. They have huge anchors, with chains on them as round about as I am.  These are called anchor chains. They are lowered and raised by a machine. The little fishing boats have anchors too, but they are only small chains with tinzy anchors on them. What would ships do without anchors! They are all right if they are moving along, but if they break down, the ship or boat would just drift with the waves and tide without an anchor. The water crafts could get lost at sea, or run aground, or be swept onto rocks. All because they didn’t have an anchor. In storms it would be much worse. But they do have anchors that can be dropped down and they are kept safe and sound in their harbour. Ships and boats could never stay safe at the dock if they didn’t have anchor chains with anchors and were not tied up carefully.

The Bible tells us about an anchor we Christians should have! There are “storms” in our lives too, problems and disasters can happen. We can drift away from God and get lost in the awful sea of this world, and get into terrible troubles. This is why we need God’s anchor. That anchor is our hope and trust in Jesus:
“ ...who have fled for refuge [ a place of safety ]  to lay hold upon the hope set before us:  Which [hope] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast [ stands strong and firm ]...“ (Hebrews 6:18,19).

The big ships have to have a good place to put their anchors in. If they had sand that wouldn’t hold them the anchors would come out again! God shows us in the Bible that Jesus is the Rock, and when we hook our anchor to Him it will never move! We will always be safe, and we will never drift away in the fierce storms of life or the waves of trouble either. WOW!  I am so glad I have Jesus as my Rock, and that my anchor is holding onto Him. Here is a song that Christians sing about anchors:

“ Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
   When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
  When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
    Will your anchor drift or firm remain?

When our eyes behold thru the gathering night
  The city of gold, our harbour bright
We shall anchor fast by the heavenly shore,
   With the storms all past forever more.

We have an anchor that keeps the soul
  Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
  Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.”

( Priscilla J. Owens. 1829- 1907).