Foundation? Strength?

"At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan."  (Mark 1:9)

What do you think of if I say "foundation"?  The 'start' of something?  For me, and those who do needlework, it is the start or base of the project.  For builders it is the base of the build -- usually out of cement.  For those in finance it can be the "source" of the money.  "Foundation," for most of us is more than the start/base of something -- it is also the strength of said project, build or financial project.

Our Gospel reading, this morning is Jesus being baptized, by John (v. 9) and then "the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days," (v. 12-13a).  This is both the 'foundation' of our Christian faith (baptism) and the start of Lent (40 days).  It is also a part of Scripture the main foundation of both -- our faith, the reason for baptism AND the reason for Lent.  The question is do we believe it?  Are we standing on this "solid foundation"?  Or is this something we think about on Sundays, while we are in the church building, tell people we believe it, but don't think about the rest of the week?

The interesting part about Scripture is all the different translations we can have of it.  At the moment I have five different translations sitting next to me on the desk.  The thing to remember, however, is the wording is a little different but the meaning remains the same.  God IS our salvation, our strength, our foundation. No matter what is happening around us we can celebrate Emmanuel -- God WITH us -- the strength of our ​foundation.