Rain

I can’t imagine it raining for forty days and forty nights.  Two weeks off and on was plenty for me recently! 

After Noah built the ark the animals came on board as did his wife, sons and daughter-in-laws. Imagine being locked on that boat with your family and animals, a lot of animals.  Then the waiting game began. 

It starts to rain, for the first time in history.  Man, that would have been amazing.  But to hear the first drops of rain dropping on the roof of the ark would have be kind of frightening, too! 

It didn’t stop.  It kept on coming down for forty days.  That’s a long time to be inside and hear it strange new sounds outside.  But they knew God was in control.

Imagine with me how you would have felt when the water rose enough to move the ark off the ground?  To feel the whole boat shift a little, then shift a lot, and finally start floating?  They were inside, just the eight of them, with the animals, floating around.  God granted them peace.

Forty days the waters came.  Not just showers, but torrential downpours.  Water burst from below, too.  How unnerving it must have been.  Recently my city had over 5” of rain one afternoon and evening.  It was hard to go to sleep that night hearing more rain beating on my roof.

Even when the rain stopped they weren’t able to get off the boat.  They continued on the ark for another 150 days while the water flooded the entire world. 

Water is destructive when it comes as a flood.  Currents are formed and things move.   People drown.  Houses are destroyed. 

Thud, the moving stopped, the ark rested, but still they weren’t allowed off the boat.

Forty more days of sitting there no longer moving, just waiting, taking care of the animals.

What about the animals on the boat?  There had to be food for them.  Someone would have to clean out the stalls. What about the smell?  They weren’t there just a day or two, but they were on that ark a very long time!

Finally, they got to disembark from the ark.  The animals head out to places God called them and they leave Noah and his family.  Eight people – four men and four women – the only people in the world.  They are alone.  I’m sure they took in the effects around them of that devastating flood.  I’m sure they were a little overwhelmed.

Still, they build an altar to God and praise Him for bringing them through the storms.  The world around them had started to spring into growth again.

God made a promise not to destroy the entire earth again by water after the great flood.  God is faithful. 

Ten years ago my house went through a flood.  I had three feet of water in my lower level.  From my front yard there was a ‘lake’ separating me from my neighbors across the street.  The devastation inside my house was unbelievable.  A waterbed had been picked up from the corner of the room and gently placed at an angle in the middle of the room!  Some totes floated without getting the contents wet, while the recycling which had been neatly stacked in the garage was covering everything now.

This past week my city experienced major flooding along the river the worst in history. Flood stage is 10’ and the river crested over 18’.  Any house with a basement near the river filled up.  People who have never had water in their basement had water.  From experience, I understand the damage water can leave.  My heart aches for those going through this disaster.  I had some water in the house, walls and a furnace need replaced, but most other things were up high enough.  Well-built, sealed items made it though without a problem. 

I recently heard a song that touched me, “Whatever You’re Doing” (Something Heavenly by Sanctus Real).  Part of the song that says,

‘There’s a wave that’s crashing over me

And all I can do is surrender’. 

Through the storms of life – literally or figuratively – when we surrender to Him, He will get us through.