In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:11-12
People who have survived floods, hurricanes, and storm surge know the story of Noah intimately. They can identify with “springs of the great deep bursting forth” and remember with horrific clarity “the floodgates of the heavens” opening. No matter how well humans plan for floods, the water always wins.
I had visited rural Honduras a few months before Hurricane Mitch literally rewrote the landscape of that country and much of Central America in 1998. When I returned two months after that second deadliest Atlantic hurricane, I saw the concrete remains of a bridge in the middle of a field. The river that used to be underneath that bridge was relocated nearly a mile to the west. The water always wins.
After being a part of Hurricane Mitch recovery for the next few years, the story of Noah became a lot darker for me. While Sunday School teachers have colorful illustrations and felt boards of animals and a boat, I started to see that story for what it really was: cataclysmic and apocalyptic. And I started questioning why God was cast in the role of creating annihilation.
The Episcopal Christians of Honduras with whom I labored in relief and rebuilding efforts also saw the narrative of Noah’s Ark differently. But what they saw what more about faith and grace, and less about the wages of sin.
Those who were in the storm affirmed that we cannot always understand God’s ways, but that we can always trust God. Those who saw the firmament opened preached that God always provides a way for us to begin again. Those who saw mountains literally leveled and lives swallowed up also firmly believed that we can and should obey God even if everyone else thinks we’re crazy.
Most importantly, they earnestly and faithfully began the work of helping the poorest of people get what they needed to survive and helped them work toward thriving. From out of the storm, God called them to service and justice.
Whatever the floods are in our lives, we can trust God’s provision and calling. In the midst of floodgates opened and the great deep bursting forth, we can hold fast to the idea that all things are possible with God.
Let us pray.
God of wind and water, stillness and storm, your Spirit sweeps over the surface of the sea. Give us faith to seek you in times of trouble. Reach out your hand to us when we are sinking so that we may believe and worship you; through Jesus Christ, Sovereign and Savior. Amen.
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