Noah and I
I was listening to a sermon once and he mentioned that the word "favor" from Genesis chapter 6 can be better understood to mean "grace." Yesterday I was reading that chapter and was reminded that God found NOT ONE righteous person and that EVERY intention and thought of man was ONLY evil ALL the time. The fact that intensions and thoughts are mentioned specifically rather than actions foreshadows Matthew 5 when Jesus tells his disciples that dwelling on thoughts of sin is the same as acting on it. Noah was a man whose thoughts and intensions were only evil, all the time, just like everyone else on the earth.
Noah, like me, was found by grace. Nothing he did deserved to be saved. Even the good things he may have done were tainted by evil intentions. Noah and I were great pretenders, motivated by selfishness.
Still.
Grace sought us out.
Amazing favor.
Transformation initiated by God, moved us to righteousness. Suddenly, God told us how to build an ark, a life set apart. We didn't seek Him first. There was nothing in us that was good.
Genesis 7:5 reveals the life-and-death importance of obedience. If Noah hadn't covered the insides of the ark with pitch, water would seep in and sink it. If he hadn't made it big enough, he wouldn't have had room for those God wanted to carry with Him.
My obedience is imperative to the safety of myself and those in my life I'm called to bring along with me.
There are times of flood and darkness when grace is the only refuge and everything around seems to be dying. Still, Noah and I remain. The great pretenders have been transformed. I'm somehow uplifted by the story of the earth's destruction because I know that I deserved to die along with everything else but was saved.
Created over 2 years ago
