Flood

As I dread going outside today (100ºF), I am also thinking about all of my family and friends in the West who just experienced a tropical storm. I grew up on the edge of the desert. The ground is very dry and hard most of the time. So, when it gets lots of rain at one time, it is subject to flooding. My home or car has never floated away, but our church building was affected by a mudslide and the center of my high school campus used to be a 2 foot deep lake. The city finally built better roads and a drainage system in the older parts of town, but there are still possibilities of flooding.

Coincidentally (?), my Jr. Church class has been studying about the time of Noah’s Ark. One of our senior deacons graciously shared several pictures and knowledge he gained from visiting the Ark Museum in Kentucky. The kids (ranging from kindergarten to 6th grade) asked wonderful questions. They had a hard time believing that God would flood the WHOLE earth so that nothing would survive except for those that were on the Ark. Birds had no where to land because all of the trees had been wiped out.

Floods can definitely be a scary thing. We can prepare our homes as much as possible for a pending storm, but we still will not know what will happen. Some of my family and friends experienced just normal amounts of rain, and others lost more than thought they would. Yet, we must remember in severe storms like “Tropical Storm Hilary”, God promised that He would not destroy the whole earth by flooding. Damage of this latest storm is still being assessed, and there will be more to come, but let us remember God’s Promise to Noah and his sons from Genesis 9:8-17 (English Standard Version):

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”