Rise and Shine...

At church this past Sunday, the little cherub choir sang the song, "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory."

Cute kids. Cute song. Basically, in sing-song style it tells the story of Noah and the ark. The song made me start thinking about Noah, his family and the animals on that ark. Something stood out to me as I looked at the story again.

Genesis 7:6 says, "Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth."

Then, in Genesis 8:13-18 it says..."By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. Then God said to Noah, "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."

So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives."

One year. Noah, his family and the animals were on the ark for one year. One year.

40 days. That's been the number I've remembered. I've never really paid attention to the fact that they were on the ark for much longer. MUCH longer.

What was that like? How patient were they? Did they wonder and question if they'd end up being there forever? Did they get antsy? What did they do during that whole time? Were they just constantly and continually filled with awe and gratitude that they weren't "out there?"

Noah was on the ark for one year. But he followed God all along the way before even stepping foot on the ark. His life was marked by faith and obedience. It is what got him safely in that ark in the first place.

That I would have the faith and obedience of Noah. To do what God asked Him to do. To wait for Him to move, work and finish what He sets out to accomplish. To see His faithfulness, remember it, and move believing it... each step along the way.