Noah's Ark in Newer Light

I had always considered the famed Bible story of Noah’s Ark to be one for the kids.

After all, hadn’t I just used an adorable little prop with big-eyed animals marching two by two onto a giant boat with a smiling cartoon Noah waving from the deck of the ship to teach my preschoolers this tale in Sunday school? 

 

So when this story came up on the Year-Bible Reading Plan I’m trying this year, I am somewhat ashamed to admit I took it as a “been there, done that,” reading. (did I mention this is the fifth year it’s been my resolution? Oh well, I’ll keep “running towards the goal,” (Philippians 3:14))

I am beyond pleased to tell you what a fool God made me after that assumption!

I got my breakthrough in the happy ending that I always loved about this story. The rainbow. 

After countless fearful hours and days and weeks of waiting on God’s promise to be fulfilled, the opening of the door to a dry and beautiful world, cleansed of evil, a fresh start, a covenant kept. And the icing on the cake, the fireworks display at the end of the show, before their eyes shone a beam of vibrant light stretching across the sky as a magnificent miracle. Entangled in those colors, woven in like an extravagant blanket, were God’s whispers: “I have not forgotten you.”

“When the rainbow appears in the clouds I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth.” –Genesis 9:16

 

And in placing myself in that story I saw that God had taken me through a tale very much the same; all of a sudden Noah’s ark  became a new and thrilling lesson, how had I been so blind?

Just as Noah had to open the doors of that ark in an act of faith, in a spirit of trust, so must I open the doors of whatever fortress I’m hiding myself in. It seems like I barricade myself with each season of my life, shutting God out in fear, waiting through the storm, feeling rocked by the waves, and wondering if He would ever keep His promise.

But if I open those doors in faith, though I run the risk of having a crashing wave flooding my ark, sinking me, I must trust that it will not because He said so.

And that’s when I can see the rainbows everywhere.

 

When I see the bright smiles of my amazing friends who hold my hands as I walk through this crazy thing called faith.

When I look in the mirror and see the softness that cloaks the skeleton I was once so well acquainted with in my times of starvation. 

When I see His plan being revealed through the open doors of college applications, opportunities blossoming everywhere when I thought it was over for me after being discharged from the Air Force.

When I hear someone say that His story in me has inspired them to seek a relationship with Jesus all their own.

God answered all those prayers I cried up to Him for years and years. He delivered me. He kept His promises. All I had to do was open those doors, take a leap of faith, prepare for the crashing wave of God’s plan to swallow me whole, and take delight in the delicious joy and peace my soul is nourished with day by day.