Build your boat.
I have a treasured James Avery pendant that was given to me by my mother. She, my aunt and I all have the same one and like to wear them when we know we will be together. It displays Noah’s Ark, with a peace dove overhead, holding a dry olive branch in her tender beak.
A symbol of a promise made.
A commitment kept.
As we find ourselves in the midst of the spring ‘rainy season,’ searching in vain for galoshes, intact umbrellas, and brightly colored ponchos to shield us from the pummeling water, we may find ourselves desperately wondering, ‘When will this monsoon-like season end?’
When will the saturated ground dry up and the sunshine show her marvelous rays?
We long for the light, the blooming flowers, the spring songbirds in full chorus. While the rain is a blessing, the dark days can lead to overwhelmingly depressed mental states.
Yet, we know God will eventually dry up the clouds and allow His sun to penetrate the earth with warming rays. These days are dark. There are wars, there is suffering, there is confusion, financial impropriety, and questions of a modern moral compass that never existed when I was a child.
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I wonder if this present world is, in any way, a resemblance of the world Noah inhabited?
Noah was different. He did not fit in. He was a faithful and godly man living in a very dark, bleak, and horribly sinful world. He led his family. And it likely cost him a semblance of camaraderie, fitting in, and bonding with his peers.
As if being the odd duck in a world of pigeons was not difficult enough, God told him to build a boat. A really big boat. When the skies showed absolutely no signs of rain!
Noah did not understand.
Yet, he obeyed.
What sort of boat is God telling you to build?
Step away from a toxic relationship? Apply for that long-shot career move you feel deep down you could never attain? Embrace a struggling partner or relationship with forgiveness and an open heart? Make that move you have been dreading for years? Stop smoking, start walking, eat less red meat, pray more, cuss less, volunteer, take up yodeling…
The possibilities are endless. But we all have a boat to build.
And it likely is an undertaking that makes little sense to others. Heck, it may make little sense to us! God does not need to explain himself. But His direction will always lead to our spiritual growth and a blessing of divine communion with Him.
Whatever ark keeps resounding in your feeble human mind, trust that God’s miracle of peace, hope, and deliverance will be yours. “If He leads you to it, He will, no doubt, lead you through it.”
The rains of life may appear never-ending.
But when our God makes a promise, He is faithful to keep that promise.
The rainbow will eventually shine brightly against the formerly dark and stormy skies. Just hold tight to Him and know, whether you are in pre-storm mode, or smack dab in the midst of a great ‘gully-washer’ (as my mother refers to torrential rains), that your day in the bright and shining sun will undoubtedly present itself.
In His perfect timing.
