1-3 Then God turned his attention to Noah and all the wild animals and farm animals with him on the ship. God caused the wind to blow and the floodwaters began to go down. The underground springs were shut off, the windows of Heaven closed and the rain quit. Inch by inch the water lowered. After 150 days the worst was over. (The Message)
The Great Flood is over for Noah and once the rain stopped you would think that now it was a sigh of relief and Noah and his family were going to get back to work and life just like it had been before the flood. But the scripture does not tell the story that way. What the Bible says is that the rain stopped and the water slowly went down not all at once but only inch by inch. When the water goes down by inches after it had rained for 40 days it takes some time for the water to completely recede. In fact the story is very specific in that it says it took 150 days for the very worst to be over. It is not hard for me to imagine that for Noah and his family those 150 days were the most agonizing days of their time on the Ark. After all when the rain had been coming down they were fully engage in staying afloat and battling the elements in that moment. After the rain stopped their situation didn't change immediately, the rain stopped, but there was no dry ground to stand on.
There are some times when we have found ourselves in the midst of a great storm of life and afterward we are ready to just get back to normal life and we wonder why we can't just get there now. Noah's story reminds us that the flood and its aftermath do not go away overnight. It takes time for life to return as we knew it and the reality is that even after we are once again standing on dry ground it is never the same.
Some thoughts to ponder and share with others:
- If you have to be in a storm which would you prefer; a snow storm, a thunderstorm, or a windstorm? Why?
- If you would have been on the Ark with Noah which would you rather have endured, the 40 days of rain or the 150 days of the water going down?
- What makes you impatient the most following a difficult time in your own life?
- Where do you find yourself now in the 150 days of waiting? What brings you hope that you will once again stand on dry ground?
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