You’ve no doubt seen some version of that first year Sunday School art project of Noah and his wife on the bow of an ark with two giraffes sticking their necks through port holes, along with a couple of zebras, and a pair of lions. There is a multi-colored rainbow overhead; sometimes just a colorful scribble, sometimes colored meticulously within the lines; a sign, God’s promise that he will never destroy the world again. Above the ark is a white dove holding an olive branch in its mouth, a symbol of renewal.
It has probably been a few years since you read the story, but have you ever wondered just how long it took Noah to build the Ark from the time God instructed him to build it, giving him the blueprint in CUBITS; 300 cubits (138 meters) long, 50 cubits (23 meters) wide, and 30 cubits (13.8 meters) high, until completion? Oh, and by the way, how long is a meter? How much time did it take for Noah and Mrs. Noah to get the materials together, scope out a location that wasn’t exactly “dockside” and start to build?
Once the vessel started to take shape, they were, no doubt, ridiculed by their neighbors. “What the heck is going on? Noah, what are you up to? Noah’s response was pretty much the same. “Oh, just planning for the future.” I’m positive that there was a whole lot-a head shakin’ goin’ on. No lectures on how evil his neighbors were; no ticking off their iniquities. No warning of God’s plan to wipe everybody away and start again; but this time without dinosaurs.
Building an ark has been on my mind lately. In October alone, there have been devastating floods in India, California, Florida, South Carolina, New South Wales, Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and it isn’t even the ides of October yet! Landscapes, coastlines, cities, towns and fields are gone. The threat of famine is growing exponentially; and that is without the grain shortages caused by the war on Ukraine!Catastrophic geophysical events such as rising water, flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis and submerged lands become deeply rooted a culture’s psyche, its folk tales, myths and religious beliefs for the good reason that these stories send warnings to future generations that say, “Yes, this has happened, and yes, it could happen again.” Whether brought on by the gods, or rapidly melting ice sheets, they are cautionary tales that give us a glimpse into the inner lives of those who were there and who share stories based in trauma and catastrophe that live on long after the poets and storytellers are gone.
Noah had some time before the deluge started to plan for the future. We have also had time to plan, yet continue to squander that time. We hold conferences debating Global Warming, and our leaders vote “yea or nay” on climate initiatives. We assuage our conscience and compensate for our Carbon Footprint by paying a few dollars more for plane tickets; an offset, a “Mea Culpa” to the rainforests.
The warnings have been there all along, there, on the nursery wall. Perhaps we have been lulled into a false security by that rainbow above the Ark. Call it a Bible story or a geo-myth, it should be a call to action. Just like all Bible stories, this one is open to interpretation. But perhaps we should talk less, and do more. Time to gather the wood and the pitch and start building.
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