Gentle Reader,
Today is my oldest goddaughter’s sixteenth birthday. And if I’m sitting here wondering where the time has gone, I can only imagine how deeply her parents are feeling it.
As the song says, life’s like an hourglass glued to the table. The days pass by whether we want them to or not. Next week the kids in my community return to their schools for another year of learning. The sun will meld into the horizon a little sooner each day until the darkness of autumn evenings envelopes the pine trees. Misty mornings and frosty grasses are just around the corner. I begin to listen for the sounds of geese flying south. Global warming does keep the temperatures higher for longer around here, but nothing really stops the changing of seasons.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night
shall not cease.– Genesis 8:22 (NRSV)
God makes this promise to Noah following the disaster of the flood, despite God’s knowledge that humanity is inclined toward selfishness and evil because of the cracks in the imago dei which we bear. Nobody is going to get progressively better all on their own. God has to, and does, intervene. And so the promise of patience, of sustained life. Space for God and humanity to interact. For humans to see the goodness, the richness, of God.
I know that there is a lot with which to wrestle in the flood narrative. I read the news and wonder just exactly how bad it had to be for God to decide that wiping out all of humanity, save for one family, was the solution…because things seem pretty over the top these days. There are so many trails of inquiry that we could go down. What was the extent of this flood (truly worldwide or localized; either way, it wiped out everything and everyone that mattered to Noah)? What does it mean that nearly every ancient civilization has a flood story in its mythology (I think it means that the flood was more than local; your milage on that may vary)? What did everyone eat while on the boat? How do dinosaurs fit in? Why do we consistently paint murals of this particular story on church nursery walls (which really is not appropriate if you think about it)?
All good questions. But if we remember that God is the main character in every biblical story, I think the most important one we can ask is: What does this tell us about God?
I think this story, and its concluding promise, tell us that God takes zero delight in watching as people choose to remain separate from God. C.S. Lewis was right when he wrote that “there are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.'” In the Bible, divine punishment isn’t some arbitrary, vengeful thing. Time and time again people have opportunities to surrender to God. Even here in the flood story, the people who see Noah building this strange ark have years to get the point. Based on everything else God reveals about Godself throughout the Bible, God would have gladly welcomed others join Noah on that boat if they sincerely wanted to be with God. God never turns away someone who comes to God with honesty.
School buses and sack lunches, new shoes and volleyball games. We stand on the edge of the season’s turning. It’s a sign of God’s faithfulness, of God’s presence. I’ll switch out my summer geraniums and petunias for marigolds. Pinks and purples for orange and red. Little splashes of color, touches of beauty. Fingerprints of God that invite everyone to remember that God is present and God is faithful to keeps God’s promises.
GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,
MARIE
Image Courtesy of Wander Fleur