This morning I was reading the account of the great flood in Genesis (New Living Translation), and like most everything I read, think, hear, do these days, I read it in light of our current all-consuming circumstance: waiting for the word to bring Solomon home. So Noah and his family and a whole bunch of smelly animals endure 40 days on a boat until "the underground water sources ceased their gushing, and the torrential rains stopped." I'm sure they were thinking, "FINALLY! We're through the storm and should be getting off this boat soon!" (I don't care how much you love your family/in-laws and/or animals or how big the boat was, I think my assumption is pretty safe). So then my Bible says, "after 150 days, exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains or Ararat." WHAT? FIVE MONTHS they sat swaying on the boat before it came to rest. If I were Noah I imagine I would be ready to do some mountain climbing.
So the boat is now on land but life in the boat is not yet over. "TWO AND A HALF MONTHS LATER, as the waters continue to go down, other mountain peaks begin to appear." (No, the NLT does not use all caps there but I feel it's appropriate). Next sentence: "AFTER ANOTHER FORTY DAYS, Noah opened the window and released a raven..." Seriously? Almost nine months have passed since the rain has stopped and he's just now opening a window? He's been sitting in this closed up boat for ten+ months, knowing the storm stopped looooooong ago. Long story short, bird doesn't find dry ground, he tries again a week later, bird comes back with a leaf, waits another week, sends bird back and it doesn't return...dry ground! Ok, so maybe I wouldn't have jumped out on the mountain top and maybe I would've waited a full week between bird tests, but I think that leaf, that sign of life would've been what had me leaving the boat.
"Finally, when Noah was 601 years old, TEN AND A HALF MONTHS AFTER the flood began, Noah lifted back the cover to look. The water was drying up. TWO. MORE. MONTHS. WENT. BY. and at last the earth was dry!" I think the writer of Hebrews needed to add that it wasn't only by faith that Noah built the ark, but that he stayed on the ark for over a year!
So now the earth is dry! But Noah didn't say "come on kids, it's dry, let's go!" Nope. "Then God said to Noah, "Leave the boat..."
The torrential rains in our adoption process have ceased and we've even had some green leaves appear. We're just hangin' in the boat waiting for that blessed word from God.
So the boat is now on land but life in the boat is not yet over. "TWO AND A HALF MONTHS LATER, as the waters continue to go down, other mountain peaks begin to appear." (No, the NLT does not use all caps there but I feel it's appropriate). Next sentence: "AFTER ANOTHER FORTY DAYS, Noah opened the window and released a raven..." Seriously? Almost nine months have passed since the rain has stopped and he's just now opening a window? He's been sitting in this closed up boat for ten+ months, knowing the storm stopped looooooong ago. Long story short, bird doesn't find dry ground, he tries again a week later, bird comes back with a leaf, waits another week, sends bird back and it doesn't return...dry ground! Ok, so maybe I wouldn't have jumped out on the mountain top and maybe I would've waited a full week between bird tests, but I think that leaf, that sign of life would've been what had me leaving the boat.
"Finally, when Noah was 601 years old, TEN AND A HALF MONTHS AFTER the flood began, Noah lifted back the cover to look. The water was drying up. TWO. MORE. MONTHS. WENT. BY. and at last the earth was dry!" I think the writer of Hebrews needed to add that it wasn't only by faith that Noah built the ark, but that he stayed on the ark for over a year!
So now the earth is dry! But Noah didn't say "come on kids, it's dry, let's go!" Nope. "Then God said to Noah, "Leave the boat..."
The torrential rains in our adoption process have ceased and we've even had some green leaves appear. We're just hangin' in the boat waiting for that blessed word from God.
