THE PERPETUAL LAWN ORNAMENT

I live across the street from an eight-foot-tall ship anchor leaning on its side. Or should I say I live across from a woman who owns one and has it in her front yard as a lawn ornament. The rusty anchor is distinctly unique from most yard decorations such as flower containers and painted ceramic mushrooms. But everyone has a right to their own aesthetics. As neighbors, we don’t mind because the anchor serves as a great location marker when we tell our visitors, “Just look for the anchor across the street!”

The story behind her lawn ornament goes like this. Her father used to scuba dive in Lake Erie with a friend. On one of their dives, they discovered an anchor stuck in the lake bottom behind a ship that sank in 1910. Her father and some friends sunk several 55-gallon drums and affixed them to the anchor. They pumped the water out of the drums and their buoyancy lifted the anchor a few inches off the muddy lake floor. Using heavy chains, the men dragged the anchor to shore using a motorboat. Then it was hauled up out of the water by a tow truck. The truck drove the anchor to her family residence in Cleveland, OH where it was deposited on display like a trophy in the front yard.

My neighbor tells me that she was too young to remember this happening, so she simply accepted the story as true “by faith.” When the family moved to a new home in the suburbs, the anchor was moved with them. After her parents passed away, she had the anchor moved again by the same towing company to her residence.

“Oh yeah, we were the same company that lifted it out of the lake,” the scheduler told her. The anchor has been in her front yard to this day. Ever since she was a little girl, she has never NOT had the anchor to look at. The visual of the perpetual lawn ornament anchors her to her memories of a close-knit family growing up and a father who was curious and adventurous. Every time she looks out her front picture window, she is reminded of her family history. And now I am, too!

With this same symbolism in mind, we turn to the Book of Hebrews that says God will give us an “anchor for our soul.” “In the same way, God, desiring even more to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement…This hope we have as an anchor of the soul…” (Hebrews 6: 17-18) God gave Abraham a promise of offspring and then swore an oath, also. This double guarantee was to assure Abraham that He would bless him and multiply his descendants, even in his old age. The promise was beyond belief, but Abraham accepted it as true.

Bible commentary calls this phrase “a peculiarly appropriate illustration.” It denotes a no-fail confidence in Jesus who, like an anchor, died and went into the unseen depths of the earth, and was raised up from that murky place on the third day. “…so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth…” (Matthew 12:40)

We find another “double guarantee” of this fact because it is noted in two of the Gospels. Both Matthew and Luke cite Jesus responding to the Pharisees, telling them that no other proof or sign would be given to them except “the sign of Jonah the prophet.” “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster…” (Matthew 12: 39) Jesus referred to the iconic fish story of Jonah and the whale, as Jonah spent three days in the depths of the sea after being swallowed by the great fish and then spit out as a type of resurrection. Jesus would fulfill “the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Jesus’ resurrection was attested to by all four of the Gospel writers.

The writer of Hebrews beckons us to accept “by faith” all the amazing supernatural experiences of our faith family. “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” (Hebrews 11: 3) In other words, we must accept that the world was formed by God although we were not there to watch it happen. From that benchmark of faith, we accept as true all the documentation of the family of faith, even the infamous “fish story” because it is impossible for God to lie. When we accept what we read in the Bible as true, including the resurrection of Jesus, God will bless our faith with a deep assurance. This “know so” assurance of eternal life anchors us to God now and to the family of faith as an heir of His promises forever.