In the six-hundred-first year of Noah’s life, on the first day of the first month, the flood had dried up. Noah opened the hatch of the ship and saw dry ground. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the Earth was completely dry.
God spoke to Noah:
“Leave the ship, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives. And take all the animals with you, the whole menagerie of birds and mammals and crawling creatures, all that brimming prodigality of life, so they can reproduce and flourish on the Earth.”
Noah disembarked with his sons and wife and his sons’ wives. Then all the animals, crawling creatures, birds—every creature on the face of the Earth—left the ship family by family.
Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance
Genesis 8: 13-20
The story of Noah is often regarded as a children’s story. How many mothers have decorated their nurseries with a Noah’s Ark theme? Yet the story of Noah contains lessons for all us, regardless of our age.
One of those lessons is that while we occasionally experience bad times, they will not last forever. Noah and his family and the animals were confined to the ark for many days. (They would probably say, “Too many!”) Yet I am certain that they were praying for God’s deliverance and protection from them, every single day they were in that ark. They realized that floating in the ark was better than drowning in the flood. Their sense of confinement may be similar to all of us being asked to stay in our homes. They made the best of it. Eventually, the waters subsided, and God commanded Noah and his family to disembark from the ark.
The very first thing Noah did after getting off of the ark was to build an altar to the Lord. In other words, Noah worshiped the Lord. He wanted to thank God for saving him and his family from the floodwaters.
Eventually, the worst of this pandemic will end, and we can begin emerging from our houses and apartments. Our homes have essentially been mini-Arks, house boats, if you will, during this health crisis. We often find ourselves praying in the midst of a storm. Yet do we remember to thank the Lord in the calm after the storm? God will deliver us from this difficult time. Things may never been exactly the same again, and the world may not look like we would hope immediately, but it will recover. As we are praying now, we must remember to thank God for each piece of good news. As the storms in our lives calm, there may be different storms ahead. The good news is that God is with us through every storm, and every change in the weather. His love for us is constant. That is praise in and of itself!
Prayer
God of rain and rainbows,
It can be so hard to trust in your timing, especially when we face bad news. Yet you saved Noah and his family, and You will save us. Help us bear with one another, and to count the days. We know that eventually, the flood will subside. Then it will be time to emerge from our arks, and to re-enter the world. May that day come soon. We pray this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.
