“Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them,” Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. ……Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything… I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. Genesis 9:1, 3, 11 

Can you imagine how scary it must have been for Noah and his family to step off of that ark to the realization that they are the only ones left on earth? God warned them and they built the ark because he was going to destroy all the people on earth, but to actually see it with his own eyes must have been overwhelming. Then God confirms His covenant with Noah with a rainbow in the sky and promise to never flood the earth again. Not only that, but He was now giving them everything. How reassuring that must have been. Noah and his family must have taken a great deal of comfort when God told them he would never again do what he had just done. Then he charged them with repopulating the earth. He didn’t just save Noah’s family from the flood he would use them to fill the earth. God took care of them during the flood and now he promises to take care of them after.

When we put our faith and trust in God we become part of His family and He promises to take care of us too. God promises an eternity in heaven with no pain, no sadness, no evil or sickness if we know him as our Lord and Savior. God always keeps his promises. We can trust that if the Bible, the word of God, tells us that we have an eternity in heaven when we believe, then, we will. The Bible is full of stories where God takes care of his people. The story of Noah is just one of those stories. Instead of looking at this story as a simple Bible story we tell our children let us take it a step further and examine it with our hearts. Dig deep into this story and allow God to reveal something new you haven’t seen before. Let us use this story of Noah to inspire us to live boldly for Christ. Building that ark and filling it with that many animals was no easy task and one I am certain most thought he was crazy for doing, yet he did it anyway. Let’s live our lives for Christ in that way. God gives us more chances than we deserve. He loves us enough to continue giving us His grace. My prayer is that we live for Him in such a way that nothing else will compare. Let there be no doubt we love Jesus with everything that we have.

Prayer

Gracious God, I pray that as hard as it is at times, we put aside our earthly desires and follow You with everything that we have. Like Noah, help us to trust You with our lives and the lives of our families, no matter how much we want to control what happens. Helps us to realize that You know what is best for us and that if we would only follow You it will all work out for Your glory in the end. In Jesus Name, Amen.