GOD'S PLEDGE IN THE SKY
Noah and his family had been shut up in the ark for over eleven months when Noah opened the window in the top of the ark and lifted out a raven, a black bird of the crow family, which has strong wings and a roving nature. The raven streched his wings and took off in flight. But he found no place to make a home, and so he flew around and around, and always came back to rest on the ark.
Noah also sent out a dove, a gentle bird of a loving nature, to see if the waters were dried up. But the dove found no resting place, and she came back to the windows of the ark. Then Noah put forth his hand and took her in. He waited a week, and sent out the dove again. This time she came back with an olive leaf in her bill; so Noah knew there was at least one place where there was no water and where an olive tree was growing.
He waited yet another week and sent out the dove again. This time she did not return, so Noah knew that the waters were gone. On his six hundred and first birthday he took off all the stout cover of the window in the top of the ark and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry! But still he waited for a month and twenty seven days, until God, who had shut the door of the ark, should open it.
Then God called Noah and his family to come out, with all the creatures he had kept in the ark for over a year and seventeen days. Oh, how changed was the earth! The mountains which had been so smooth and beautiful were jagged now with rocks. The waters had washed miles of sand and gravel and rock over the fair plains. The great wind which had come at the end of the flood had broken off mountaintops and buried the dead bodies and the great forests in the earth. There were vast oceans where there had been but seas before, and water covered three fourths of the earth's surface.
There was no more the even flow of the little streams under the surface, to water the ground. In some places they were there, and the ground was well moistened; but in other places there had come great deserts where before there had been fruitfull plains. Forests were just getting a start. Here and there were little patches of green, where plants and trees were beginning to grow, like the olive tree from which the dove had plucked a leaf. Noah and his family wondered how they could get enough to eat. They had always eaten just the food that God gave man in the beginning, fruits, grains, and nuts. But now, when there seemed so little of such food to be had, God for the first time gave them the right to eat flesh food too.
However, they were thankful that the Lord had kept them safe and now had taken them out of the ark and set them again upon the earth. So Noah called his family together and they built an alter of stones, and offered on it sacrifices of the clean animals they had preserved on the ark. And they thanked God for His goodness, and prayed for His favor.
Then there came up black cloud like those that had brought the Flood. And the sons and daughters of Noah cried out in fear that there would be another Deluge. But God made the sun to shine on those rain clouds, and there appeared, arching over the eastern sky, a beautiful rainbow. Never had they seen one before; for there had never been any rain. And God said to them; "I set My bow in the clouds, for a pledge to you that I will never send another flood to destroy all mankind. Hereafter it shall rain on the earth, to moisten it and make it fruitfull; but when the cloud appears, there also shall be the rainbow, to remind you of My promise."
There is always a rainbow over the throne of God in heaven, as a sign that God remembers His promise; and sometimes God shows us the rainbow on earth. So, with Noah and his family, let us thank God for His godness and His promise when the bow appears in the cloud in the day of rain.
: )
Remember Jesus loves you
1|1|Thank you so very much!!|Skaytes|skaytez@gmail.com|07:47:50|05/31/2010|
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