God Remembers

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased, they lifted the ark high above the earth. Every living thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. (Genesis 7:17, 21, 23, NIV 1984).

My Musings – Think of the isolation they must have felt during the roughly three hundred and seventy days they spent on the ark. If they ever wondered if God had abandoned them? If maybe it would’ve been better to perish in the flood?

But they did not, and God had not. For “God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark.” (Genesis 8:1, NIV 1984). The rain ceased, the floodwaters receded, and dry land appeared once more. “Then God said to Noah, ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.'” (Genesis 8:15–17, NIV 1987).

Storms will appear in our life. Seasons of suffering and sadness. It is still a fallen world, after all. We may feel abandoned and forgotten. But neither will be the case for those who belong to Jesus. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:15–16, NIV 1984). Those nail prints on His palms, if you’ve accepted Him, sought forgiveness through Him, they bear your name. They have saved you for the next world. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NIV 1984).

Troubling floodwaters may rise around us, but they need not overcome us. They do, in fact, come with a purpose. “Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6–7, NIV 1984). Through them, “your faith-of greater worth than gold,” will “multiply…and be fruitful.”

My Advice – So, for the “little while” you are in your “ark” being tossed by the waves of adversity, “take heart.” “For [your] light and momentary troubles are achieving for [you] an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So… fix [your] eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18, NIV 1984). The waters, which are temporary, will recede. Dry land will appear, and you will realize that the eternal God, though unseen by you, had not forgotten or forsaken you.