Into the Ark

“‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family’…And Noah and his sons and his wife…entered the ark to escape…The waters flooded the earth…But God remembered Noah…and the waters receded.” Ge 7:1-8:1

As I continue to search for our present predicament in the pages of the Bible, I remember Noah. His family was also called to stay in place…shelter-in…hunker down. Instead of a virus that marched across the world, the heaven’s opened up and flooded the world. They couldn’t even open the door and get a little exercise and fresh air. They were isolated in the wooden walls of an ark that would preserve their lives. It didn’t mean that they weren’t frustrated, fearful and impatient with life within their shelter. They also knew like we know, that to remain huddled together was to escape the threat. They also knew that their dilemma was temporary but within the walls it must have felt permanent. I wonder if they could even sleep as their containment vessel tossed and violently rocked as the entire world was drowning. I wonder if they were fearful that their food supply would run out. Would life as they knew it ever return to normal? How long would it be before stability returned? Did they place blame on God like many of us place on government? Did they continuously look at the waves like we obsessively look at the news?

I love that the Bible comforts us through this story as it reminds us that God remembered Noah as if we thought He had forgotten this family. But then I consider that maybe there are people within their own ‘shelter’ who may be feeling as if God has forgotten them during this storm. It is human nature to default to fear instead of clinging to faith. It is human nature to focus on the torrential downpours of life instead of the future rainbow. It is human nature to turn on the television instead of opening the Bible. But we don’t have to accept human nature because as believers, we are called to live above the fray. We are called to experience our highs and our lows by abiding in the spiritual realm of God. We were never meant to figure out our perils but rather to focus on God’s power. He is bigger than any storm and greater than any fear. He loves us with relentless passion and protects with a Mother’s fierceness.

Whatever your ark contains, understand and believe that God is with you and prepared everything for you during this experience. Consider that where we are is not the fault of any person, but the permissive will of God's great plan for the world. His thoughts and ways are higher than anything we can understand at present. But one day not too far in the future we will glance upward to witness a rainbow that bridges the chaos to the calm and the storm to the settled.

“And God said, ‘I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant…’” Ge 9:12-13