Noah

Apps are cool. (I sound old.) Anyway, I recently added another Bible app that contains reading plans, devotionals, and several versions from which to choose. This past week I began a personal challenge to read through the Bible in a year. It may take me longer, but at least this will give me a start and some direction.
Today I was reading in Genesis the account of Noah and the flood. You may be new to the stories of Scripture, but this story is a classic tale of truth laden with conflict, surprise, destruction, and regrowth. God had had enough. Sin was rampant. Man's evil was blatant. "Every intention of his heart was evil continually." BUT Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
I have read these verses many times. Yet, I had one of those stop and sit on the verses moment. There is a lot of yuck in our world. Every generation shares their own complaints, and we are no exclusion. Sin is rampant and man's thoughts are evil. BUT. . .
Would God find favor with me?
How am I responding in a world that disregards its creator?
Would I be able to lead my family over an extensive period of time in a project of immense proportions despite ridicule and doubt?
I found it interesting that even after the ark was built, the animals and supplies were collected, and the door was shut, nothing happened for a week. One might think, "OK, God. Anytime now." I wondered if they wondered. I am sure that the neighbors were not silent on the outside of this boat in the middle of a desert. God chose not to act instantaneously. He waited. Why? I don't know. I do know that when he did act it was powerful. We are talking incessant rain. The kind of rain where the skies open up and pour their contents. The kind where every mountain is covered. Every one.
I am not a rain loving girl. Ask anyone in my family. Nor do I own any pets. So, living on a floating zoo with rain falling for forty days seems unimaginable. Yet, that is what Noah and his family were chosen to do. No one else.
How often did they doubt that they would ever see dry land again? Did they ever wonder if the sun would shine another day?
Favor with God provided salvation, but their choice to obey did not come without discomfort.
Then came the calm. The sun. The hope.
It did not happen overnight. Dry land that is. It took awhile. But it came. A new day, a new beginning on earth.
Mind you, Noah and his family were not perfect. I take comfort in that. Yet, they still rested in God's favor.
I am humbled by the little things that God does in my life. I am not building any ark to escape world destruction, but I am building into the lives of those whom God has placed in my life.
God's Word wows me. This story of Noah and his family reminded me of God's plan, power, and promise that were worked out because of the favor found in one man.