Five months after the rain stopped, they remained in the ark, floating on an endless ocean. And then finally the dove returned to Noah with a sprig of newly green leaves in it's beak.
It was the resurrection of the world.
A new beginning. That's what we all long for when we've got caught in the eddies of the world and we're being spun around and around, out of control, in chaos. Here was a fresh start for the world.
A new beginning has its own form of stillness and quietness, doesn't it?
God spoke to Noah.
Genesis 8:15 Then God said to Noah, 16 Leave the boat, all of you--you and your wife, and your sons and their wives. 17 Release all the animals--the birds, the livestock, the small animals that scurry along the ground--so they can be fruitful and multiply the earth."
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. 21 And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, "I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. 22 As long as the earth remains there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."
Then God spoke words that might seem a bit familiar...He said the same thing to all living creatures in the Garden...
Genesis 9:1..."Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. 2 All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power."
He gave all he had given before, all the abundant beauty, all the life, all the lovely orderly procession of time...and then more.
Genesis 9:8 The God told Noah and his sons, 9 "I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, 10 and with all the animals that were on the boat with you...11...Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will flood destroy the earth."
As a sign of that covenant, God placed a rainbow in the clouds over the earth. It was the very word of God that never again would he destroy the whole earth with a flood. This was something that Noah nor his family ever had to fear again.
I love the imagery in the artwork shared with this post, of the animals running wildly and joyously, bursting out of the doors of the ark. Leaping and bounding, going in all directions.
Running into the light of a fresh new day, into a brand-new world.
Genesis 8:22 As long as the earth remains there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."
So it has been and so it shall be.
God's promise continues even now.
If we ended last week with some grief, we come into this week with joy and hope, secure with a promise given by God, a sign we can see to this day following a storm.
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