REFLECTIONS

Preparing for a Storm

Have we ever seen anything like it? Two record hurricanes affecting such densely populated areas within a few weeks of each other, gridlock on the evacuation highways, lines at the gasoline pumps only to find none available. What’s going on anyway? With all the wind, rain, and flooding, don’t you wonder what it might have been like during Noah’s day.

Back then no radio or TV broadcast the danger of the impending storms, only God’s instructions to Noah. The world seemed too busy to listen—except for Noah. And even he must have been a bit baffled by God’s instruction, for the Lord God had not [yet] sent rain on the earth… (Genesis 2:5) Now God was telling Noah to build a big boat to prepare for sheets of water to fall from the sky. “You say what!” we might have heard him say.

The Bible tells us God spoke only to Noah perhaps because He had given up on everyone else. God knew that even if TV broadcasters and government officials had been around then to relay evacuation warnings, the news would have been received like science fiction or bazaar words of alarmists. But while the world did not listen to God, Noah did.

Today we need not worry that the world is coming to an end from floods. God promised, “… never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, /seedtime and harvest, / cold and heat, / summer and winter, / day and night / will never cease.” (Genesis 8:21-22) But that doesn’t mean that we should not be preparing for a storm. Remember the warning that the end times will come, like a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

Maybe this time the world will listen to God. Maybe this time we will hear Jesus’ words, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25)

Jesus’s message prepares us to weather the storm. And if we share the message in whatever simple ways we can, we will be helping others to weather it too. Many may choose not to listen—but maybe some of them will.

“You are the light of the world.”

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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