Noah

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.   Genesis 6:22 (NIV)

Noah, one of my favorite characters of the Bible.  Not only does he give us reason to sing the BEST VBS song EVER, "The Lord said to Noah there's gonna be a floody, floody..." he is such a great example of total trust and faith in God.

The story of Noah and the Ark comes from Genesis, chapters 6, 7 & 8.  If you have time, go ahead and read it right now for a refresher.  I know it's one of the bible stories we think we know all about, but everytime I read it, I pick up on something I hadn't realized or paid attention to.  (It's like that most of the time I read the bible!)

Earlier in Genesis 2:5-6, it says, "Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground."  Cool.  God provided what the earth and plants needed, didn't he?

Yesterday as I came back from my morning walk, I heard a steady 'ping, ping, ping' coming from our shed.  There is no door on it right now (thanks to a storm LAST YEAR) and there is no power to it, so that steady noise really caught my attention.  I kind of glanced over at the shed, didn't see anything and went in the house to get ready for work.  This morning, the same thing.  I came back and heard that pinging sound again.  I studied the shed a little closer and realized it was the dew dripping off the shed roof onto some metal sitting on the ground.  Dew. 

The other thing I had been noticing on my walk was that the corn next to us looks pretty curled in the afternoon (just like flowers and plants and such) but early in the morning, it doesn't look so stressed...Again, dew.  It brought me back to Noah...and the verse about the streams coming from the earth to water the surface.  I realize that right now our earth is so dry, there is very little coming from below, but God is providing us some moisture in the form of dew.

So back to Noah and his terrific faith.  Here is a man who is told by God to build this grand ark and gather all these animals and his family and get in it because he was going to destroy the earth.  Can't you just imagine what the neighbors were thinking?  I can hear it now..."Oh, no, Noah must have lost his mind."  "His poor wife."  "Do you think he's having a mid-life crisis?"  "Someone should get him some help."  What would we say right now if we heard about a man who said God told him to build an ark?!  We would have very similar thoughts, wouldn't we?  God did promise, "Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done."  (Gen 8:21)

And right after that in verse 22 is one of those verses I have never really paid attention to before but I love, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” 

Noah trusted in God and did as he was commanded, which is mentioned a couple times in the story, and a point well taken.  Right now we are in desparate need of water.  Our crops are suffering.  The beautiful things we enjoy like flowers, bushes, trees, grass, they are suffering.  I am sure that right about now farmers are struggling, trying to remain faithful and trust in the Lord to provide the rain, but still in the back of their minds, wondering what His plan is.

Our pond has fallen to a level that I don't believe I've ever seen it at before.  Our outside water spigots are connected to a pump in the pond...the water has dropped below the pump; therefore, our outside water spigots won't work.  It's more of an inconvenience than anything else (the spigots), but the pond level is a concern because the cows, deer, birds, fish, frogs, turtles, even those stupid snakes, rely upon that water for hydration. 

I know that for me, since my livelihood doesn't depend upon the crops and a harvest, it's somewhat easy for me to sit back and have faith that God will provide.  There are many who are dependent upon it though and they need our prayers.  We must continue to try to have faith like Noah and believe that God will provide for us, one way or another...and pray for rain.