Ah, darling Bernetta. She’s a little bit forward. This could be good for Moth, since he seems to be having trouble communicating right now. Lucky Ethan is there to move things along.
A very special birthday shout-out to my little brother, Kevan! He has contributed a couple of excellent guest posts here, and he also farms a great blog over at Half-Broken Busy. Check it out. Buy his books. Listen to his music. You owe it to yourself.
Special 1 year Anniversary guest blog post by Connie Chandler
As an English as a New Language (ENL) teacher, it seems obvious that the story of Noah’s Ark is a prime opportunity to introduce 100 new vocabulary words for animals. What went on the boat? Aardvarks, Bats, Centipedes, Zebras, and everything in the middle. With graphic clip art, photos, stuffed animals, and trips to the zoo, the learning possibilities are endless, and by the time class is over, there will be 15 more international people who can list all the species of the animal kingdom in multiple languages! Well, that plan might be a bit grander than reality, but you get the idea.
But as much fun as it could be to teach a lesson on lions, tigers, and bears, that isn’t really the point of Genesis 6, is it? I am so thankful that God chose to protect all the animals from dying in the flood… but I am even more thankful that he spared a family of humans. See, animals are beautiful and interesting and useful and inspiring, but they were not made to walk and talk with God through a garden in the cool of the day. They weren’t the ones he made in his image, for his purpose, to his glory. We are. And as often as humanity has made a mess of things throughout history, God – in his crazy love and mercy – keeps rescuing us, calling us back, and redeeming us.
In Genesis 6:18, God says he will establish his covenant, not with the animals, but with Noah. If Noah trusted God and obeyed him – if he built the ark according to God’s plans and put his family inside – then they would be saved, protected, preserved… they would live. Sound like something else you might have heard? We don’t need an ark, but we do need Jesus, and the power of his death and resurrection. We need to be covered by him and live by his grace to receive forgiveness, salvation, and true life.
God loves the animals with feathers, fins, and four feet, but he didn’t step down from his throne in heaven to put on scales or fur… he put on human flesh and died as a man to save and redeem and restore relationship with you and me.
Read more from Connie at Life is Sweet.
Special 1 year Anniversary guest blog post by Kevan Chandler
There have been two floods in the history of man that have covered the whole Earth. Cleansing waters poured out and drenched the world in its darkest hours.
The first came from the sky, rain – a curious thing that no one had ever heard of before. God told a righteous man, Noah, to get ready. Noah built a boat, and was mocked for his vision. What’s rain, anyway? An old wives tale, I say! A bedtime story to scare the kids! Water from the sky? Ridiculous! Next, they’ll say the moon is made of cheese! What’s cheese? But the world was falling apart, sin was rampant, and the Lord said he would fix it. So, fix it, he did. He opened up the heavens and let the rain fall. The earth, they say, even opened up to release geysers, which was new as well. Water was coming from everywhere and it wasn’t slowing down. God filled the world like a bathtub and then drained it – a fresh start, a new world without all that sin. Let’s try again, starting over with good ol’ Noah and his kids. Surely, things will go better this time! But it was only a matter of days before the righteous got carried away with drink, and everything went back to a big mess. And so it went on for a while
longer – a few hundred years, in fact – until word got around that a savior was coming to clean up again and make everything right. And one day, he came.
Jesus of Nazareth showed up and said he was the Son of God. He showed it too, not just in miracles, but in his attitude and wisdom. Some believed and others didn’t. After all, last time God fixed things, he made a much bigger scene, and this Jesus was so meek and mild. If judgement and salvation – if a flood – was to come from a man, it would be a warrior, right? Jesus was no hero, no gladiator. He wasn’t even that handsome. The press didn’t care about this carpenter and his fishermen buddies. But he was who he claimed to be, and he showed the world what it should look like, and it reacted by killing him. And here is the second flood – as we reflect in this Easter season – that when he died, Christ’s side was pierced and there came forth an
outpouring of blood and water. It was in his death that the second, and the final, cleansing flood was poured out upon humanity. Our sins washed away, a chance to start again. No longer dependent on a somewhat righteous man, prone to fall, but it is God himself through whom this new life comes. It’s not just a rinse, but an entirely fresh beginning, and it is good.
Read more from Kevan at Half-Broken Busy.
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