shut the door…

It’s raining outside this evening.  I love a good thunderstorm in the spring.  For me, sleep comes much easier to the tune of raindrops drumming on the roof.  And I don’t mind a few rumbles and crackles of thunder and lightening.  It all brings a bit of peace.

Tonight as I’m sitting here enjoying the weather, the rain has reminded of a story.  Its a story I’ve been reading with Mackenzie.  At her request we’ve read it several times this week.  And I don’t mind it, really.  Its a Sunday School favorite that everyone knows from childhood: Noah and the Ark.

As I’ve read and re-read and re-read again the story with my baby girl something very specific has come to my attention that I never truly gave much thought to before.  Most folks know that in the story of Genesis 6 we meet Noah, the only man on earth left who loved God.  When God asked him to build this huge boat- the size of football fields – Noah did it according to specific instructions.   Here’s what I ‘ve pondered during our study:  surely, during all of that time while they were preparing for the flood, Noah had to have had questions.  Was he a logistics kind of guy at all?  Didn’t he wonder how it was all going to work out?  I mean, even if the boat was sea worthy, even if all the animals cooperated and got on board, even if it actually started raining…

In every description I’ve ever seen or heard of the ark, it depicts an enormous door.  I think I would have been wondering…. Who is going to shut that huge door behind us?

But, Genesis 7 :16 says this:

Then the LORD closed the door behind them.

Noah obeyed and God finished up the rest.  God did not call on Noah to do a job that He wasn’t prepared to help complete.

Those words have captured my thoughts, while I’m sitting here listening to the rain pitter patter.  Often I hear God calling, asking something in particular of me – and it seems gigantic- even insurmountable. So, instead of getting started in faithful obedience,  I ask Him questions like, “But, who’s going to shut that humongous door?”  Who is going to do the impossible part of that thing that I can’t do?   Who’s going to fill in the blanks when the answers are beyond my own imaginations?

And I want to know the ending before I get started on the beginning.

There are so many lessons to be learned from the story of  Noah and the flood.  But, tonight,  right now, what I needed is this:  Whatever it is God is calling me to do, He has the master plan.  I just have to do my part – I don’t have to know all of the details. There may be parts of the plan that seem absolutely, humanly impossible.  But it doesn’t matter.   He will take care of shutting the door.

and this evening that knowledge brings more peace than the sound of the falling rain.