A Bump of a Different Kind

November 11, 2005

The morning of “the day” came as the sun rose as it always did. A look out the window revealed that the boat was very close to land. The water had receded to a level where it had become an object held back by the land which now defined the world. The morning chores of tending to the animals went along as usual. The anticipation of coming to rest on solid ground may have even waned a bit. Still, the belief that it would happen was still real although a little fuzzy.

The bottom of the ark inched ever so slowly, closer and closer, minute by minute toward it's resting spot beneath it. Yet, the boat dwellers inside didn't see much, if anything, change. Their life would go on, requiring them to accomplish their daily tasks. Life for them would go on normally. There was no expectation that today was “the day.” But it was.

The ark hit solid ground and it shuddered when it did. The boat dwellers felt the shock of the ark's bottom striking ground and immediately knew what it meant. The time had come for life to change in a substantially material way. In only a matter of days, the ark would no longer be a boat. Rather, it would be a land-bound animal hotel; the largest barn ever to exist. It was the seventeenth day of the seventh month.

Questions about life, what was going to happen and how would they live, would have been raised. You can imagine the conversations. “Let's go get our chores done quickly. We'll have an early supper and talk about what we should do now.” How much longer would they stay inside the ark? When could they release some of the animals? Should they stay on the ark and simply live their making it their permanent home? Many questions and few answers for now. They would need to wait a while longer to understand how this all would play out. The murky, muddy, soggy world outside would not sustain life. They knew that. But how much time would pass before the earth was ready to sustain life again? That was the question.

They waited, watching the water now quickly receding below them, drain away in rivers and streams. Each day another little stream would dry up; a small pond would become visible and a lake would recede into a meadow area, but devoid of life. The rocky outcropping they landed on would hold them solid as another nearly three months would pass. On the first day of the tenth month most of the mountains around them could clearly be seen. On the fortieth day after the ark grounded, Noah performed his first test.

There must have been many conversations about how to know when it was time to leave the ark. Why not just open the door and walk down the gang plank? They certainly could use the ark as a home base. They could walk around on the mountain side, watch the progress of the recession of water, begin to make some plans about where to live. What would be the harm in that? But Noah was more in tune with God than to take on these decisions himself. He'd seen others who took control of their lives assuming that God was there only to help them with their agenda. They had no real answers to their questions then and the life that they struggled through didn't even exist now. No. Noah would not make the decision about when to leave the ark himself. He would rely on his righteous, daily walks and conversations with God to reveal the true answers. God was not there to serve him. He was there to serve God. He knew that with keeping that attitude his life would be abundant. He knew that even if he and his sons along with his wife and theirs needed to start life on the earth again, he could only accomplish the task if God was directing it. So he would wait upon the Lord.

He could, however, seek answers in the physical world as well as the spiritual. So on one morning he took a raven, a hardy, strong bird with spiritual significance and released it to the air. The raven has long been known in many cultures to be a bird of death and creation able to scavenge for food and live in the most hostile environments. It prefers dead food as opposed to live food. It may be that Noah used the bird because of it's scavenger attributes. Or maybe because of it's reputation of being a creature that can bridge between the spiritual and physical worlds. In any case he released the Raven to the wild where it flew back and forth until the water had dried up. Noah was using the Raven to test the conditions in the world outside the ark. He would not make a plan to leave the ark until God told him to do so. The raven was part of the process of seeking God's direction. The raven test would begin the process to determine if living in the new world was even possible. The raven could survive almost anyplace and if he could survive outside the ark, maybe other beings could too.

The raven flew back and forth, back and forth from the ark to who knows where and back. Noah had a good idea that God's new world was beginning to be ready. He needed another test. A test without as good a chance for survival. A test that would indicate that a more frail being might be able to survive. He chose a dove for this test. Dove's are more “earthly” creatures than ravens. They seem to have progressively adopted urban areas as their natural habitat and breeding ground. We see them in our world strutting along the ground looking for seeds and nest building materials. Noah knew that the dove would begin the process of building a life as soon as vegetation was growing. Once vegetation was know to be growing, life for humans outside the ark could begin. He released a dove, with the knowledge that if it returned, the world was not ready.

The dove fluttered away and Noah waited. The scripture tells us that Noah was a righteous man and so we can be fairly confident that his prayer went out to God as the Dove went out to the world outside.

... more later

A Bump On the Horizon - part 3

Imagine the excitement shared on board as progressively, day by day, the boat slowly floated lower and lower. The boat wasn't anchored, according to scripture, so it would have revolved slowly toward the starboard or port side as the wind pushed it this way and that. The view out of the window framed a constantly changing picture of the new world. Sometimes the view would be encouraging. Other times the view would not be so pleasant. Sometimes the view reminded them of the beauty of God's creation. Other times the view would be a murky, muddy reminder of what had been their world for so many years. The reminders of the former world were all around them; broken pieces of lives never to lived again.

There was hope though. As the new world slowly gained focus, the group on board anticipated the next big event. They all must were wondering what it would feel and sound like when the ark finally, for the first time in over a year, hit the earth with a thud. Who was to say it would land on level ground? Would it be on rock? Mud? Bow end up or leaning toward the starboard side? They would have to wait until it happened to know for sure. The anticipation made a change however, and their lives were better for it. Because they knew that when that thud finally resounded through the decks of the craft they were one step closer to the reality of a brand new world.

In the mean time, the mountain lion and the yak, the platypus and all the rest needed water and food. Even through the wonderful anticipation that they would eventually hit land, their daily life routines didn't change much. The tasks of daily living still demanded attention. They know that one day that routine will change. But right now, with hope set upon a new life in a new world, they tended to the routine that must have become very tedious by now. The needs of all the life around them had not changed. They needed to perform the duties to which they'd been assigned months ago even while they looked forward to the day when they'd leave the drudgery and tedium behind and walk down the ramp to dry ground for the first time.

... to be continued

A Bump on the Horizon - part 2

Every day someone would peer out that little window and note how much of the bump was visible that day. Each morning, as soon as the sun was high enough to provide light to see by, a comparison would be made to the day before. The blind faith required to rise each morning to do the daily task of caring for these thousands of animals became more and more hopeful as each day progressed. That little bump, maybe 75 miles away was the embodiment of hope for each of those people. That hope made life easier, maybe even bearable for a couple of them.

Morning after morning someone must have kept track, testing the progress of that bump. After several days that bump would have be recognizable as the peak of the tallest mountain on the horizon. No longer would the discussion work its way around wondering what the bump was. Now it could be seen. Land. A glimmer of promise that this incredibly hard ordeal might be over. The eight hapless boat dwellers would indeed be able to leave the confines of the ark and establish a land born home again.

The day came when a second bump appeared and then a third and then a forth. The original bump became more and more recognizable as having peaks and valleys. They may have named them so they could keep track of each bump's progressive revelation. “Look at Paramount Peak this morning Japheth. Over on the west side, there's another little outcropping that looks a bit like a horses head.” “Yes. I can see it! I wish we had a way to move closer to it.” “I God's good time. In God's good time.”

Eventually, so many peaks were visible that the viewpoint of the world would fundamentally change. No longer would it seem to be a world of water. Enough land appeared that the paradigm viewpoint would shift from bumps rising out of the water, to water receding from the land. Now they would keep track of how far the water went down each day rather than how much higher did the peak rise. The change in focus was the shot in the arm they needed to really get excited about their future. Not only did their viewpoint about the earth change but so did their outlook on life. God's blessing came in a subtle but very significant way. The solid rock was still there and there was comfort in knowing that eventually they would place their feet upon it.

...to be continued.

A Bump On The Horizon

November 7, 2005

For forty days and nights the rain never stopped. I suppose for a few days the ark just sat there, where it was built in Noah’s back yard, while the 8 inhabitants inside adjusted their planned routines. Outside the arc the water would slowly rise. Noah’s neighbors, friends and acquaintances plus a couple of hundred others who had heard about this monstrous boat probably would have been begging and pleading to gain a spot on the craft. It may have never rained before. But it wouldn’t take very long for people to figure out what was happening around them. A few would raise their glasses and party on too. But once they noticed that they were standing ankle deep in water they would have begun to second guess their safety.

By the biblical account, there was only one way on and off this barge. That door had been shut by God. The people on the outside without a doubt had constructed rafts and garnered fishing boats to stay on top of the water. They floated around this huge box of Noah’s for a few days, in the rain, slowly floating higher, up the side walls of the ark. I’d guess they hoped that they could eventually get on top of the vessel. But as the water rose the ark itself would have begun to float. At that point in time, the people on the little crafts floating around the arc would have had little hope. Eventually these “hangers-on” succumbed to the storm and drowned, leaving a sum total of 8 persons on earth.

Noah and his crew must have grieved the loss of life. Friends and relatives. Brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, all gone. Livestock and houses and stores and barns and gathering places, all gone. Forests and groves and parks and meadows, all gone. For the next year on that arc, when anyone gazed out of the one window on the arc there wouldn’t be anything to see but water and whatever was floating in it.

The ark bobbed around the seas for what must have seemed to be forever. Then the wind began to blow. Noah and his sons must have given each other a knowing glance, wondering if the wind would bring another storm. How could they take anymore? Why were they spared in the first place. Even through the fortunate circumstances they knew they were in, there must have been days when wondered both why were they spared why they shouldn’t have been. This wasn’t a case of holier-than-thou self-righteousness on their part. This was a time of extreme, heart-breaking and gut wrenching grief.

After a few months of the sea-sickening churning, rolling and bobbing of this floating box of a barn they would have wondered if it was worth it at all. Wouldn’t it have been better to have died instead? The biblical account doesn’t indicate that they knew how long this would last at all. Of course they had plenty to eat. After all they had every animal on earth below decks. As long as the grain held out, they’d have fresh eggs. The waiting must have been excruciating.

Then, one windy day, just barely visible through that one small window on the watery world around them, a bump appeared on the horizon. Whoever saw that first bump must have taken a heart quickening second look with a double blink of his eyes. I wonder if he waited a day or two before telling anyone just to be sure he was really seeing something or if he was imagining a hopeful end to this horrible nightmare. Or maybe he ran to the others to have eight pairs of eye come take a look now before it disappeared. “Grab a notebook! We’ve got to document this!”


... to be continued.