A FIRM FOUNDATION

FLETCHER MANLEY—LANCASTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

For me, cycling across the Greek island of Crete some years ago, was like time-traveling through a page of the Old Testament. Amidst excavation sites of ancient Minoan and pre-Christian cultures, the tableau of life was played out—goats being led to the fields for grazing, shepherds watching their flocks on rocky hillsides, workers carefully tending vineyards and olive orchards, donkeys and mules carrying produce to and from local markets. In spite of modernization, it seemed as though the foundation of daily life on Crete rested solidly on its traditional ways.

Given this atmosphere of antiquity embedded in the Cretean landscape, I wasn't really surprised when I came upon this building. It was almost as though the house could have served as the original model Jesus referred to in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Verse 48 tells about a man who built a house after he had dug deep and laid the foundation on a rock: "And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock."

I wanted to take a photograph of this house but was feeling the need to hurry, as the late afternoon shadows were beginning to encroach. Just as I was about to press the shutter, I heard sharp hoof beats on the road below. A man and a small boy, astride a donkey and leading a goat, were about to move into my field of view. A perfect touch to help place the scene, I thought, and waited a few seconds longer before releasing the shutter.

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