The Ark

So I was talking about Noah with my middle school small group this week. All my girls knew his story: how because of their utter wickedness, God was bummed out that he'd created mankind. How the only man who found favor in his eyes was Noah. How he commanded Noah to build an ark and take his family and 2 of each animal on board with them to survive the coming flood. How at the end God displayed a rainbow in the sky as the sign of his covenant to never completely flood the earth again. Like I said, we all knew the story.

Then one of my girls asked: did God command Noah to build the ark as a test for him, to see if he'd obey God in this huge thing? Some crazy test that would be! Especially if it was the first time Noah had ever heard from God! Can you imagine? But then I read...

"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord..."

"Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time..."

"Noah did everything just as God commanded him..."

And more. Several more times in those couple of chapter in Genesis did Noah get commended for obeying God, fully. And I realized: this wasn't the first time God had spoken to Noah. Sure, maybe he'd never asked him to do something as crazy as build an ark before, but at this point in his life he'd been around for more than 500 years and "he walked with God." In all that he did, day in and day out, Noah was a man who lived to listen to his Creator and strove to follow him in all things. Little things. Big things. And now this. And when that call came for the ark to be built, Noah had seen God at work in his life before and knew--he can be trusted. Even though the task was huge, even though it would require some major life change, even though people might think he was insane. Noah knew he served a God who was bigger than all of that, a God who loved him and wanted the best for him and who could be trusted in the big things just as well as the little things. And you know what happened.

So now the challenge comes to me: am I walking with God in all things--the little as well as the big? Because if I am, I'm going to come to know him more, know his call and his trustworthiness and his love for me. And when those "ark" situations come around, things that seem impossible and terrible by my--and maybe the rest of the world's--estimation, I'll know: in this too can he be trusted. And what comes after that, we've yet to find out...