God’s Gift of the Ordinary

The cousins visiting a life-size replica of Noah’s ark at The Ark Encounter https://arkencounter.com

People seem to thrive on adventure. The thrill of new experiences and drama often give us a high. But there is something to say about the everyday, normal activity of life. You could even say it is God’s gift of the ordinary.

God’s Perfect World

God created a perfect world. Everything and everyone worked in harmony with the other. One day a tragedy occurred. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s command. Sin entered the creation and from then on a downward spiral pulled our beautiful world and everything in it into an undertow of devastation.

Over time the effects of sin became so bad that God looked down on His creation with disgust. He saw that every intent of the thoughts of man’s heart were continually evil. This saddened Him and He decided to destroy the world He had created. But there was Noah, one man who found grace in the sight of the Lord.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. God revealed to Noah what He planned to do and gave him directions to build a large boat, which would serve as protection from the great flood He was going to send on the earth.

God Sends A Flood

For 400 years Noah and his sons worked on the boat, all the while preaching to their neighbors and asking them to repent of their sins. Sadly, the people only jeered at this obedient family. When the boat was ready God told Noah and his family to take a male and a female of every kind of animal, plus sevens of the sacrificial animals, into the boat. Then He shut the door and sent rain upon the earth for forty days and nights.

In that month the water covered the earth and drowned out all living things, but Noah and his family were safe within the boat. After a year or so God dried up the earth and allowed Noah’s family to exit the boat. They and all the animals stepped out onto dry land to begin a new life.

We are so familiar with this story that we often tend to forget the emotional impact this tragedy must have had on Noah and his family. They were uprooted from their home knowing that all of their friends and family were being destroyed because they would not repent. They, along with the life they had known, vanished into the deepest ocean ever created.

When this family timidly stepped out of the boat and drew in the fresh air of their new home, the first thing Noah did was to build an altar and make a sacrifice to the Lord. In response God made some promises. He said He would never again destroy every living thing with another flood, and that:

“While the earth remains

Seedtime and harvest

And cold and heat,

And summer and winter,

And day and night

Shall not cease.”

Genesis 8:22

God’s Ordinary Gift

After all the drama of this worldwide flood, God gave Noah and his family a gift of the ordinary. Year after year they would experience the natural cycle of earthly events. Seedtime would yield harvests. The seasons and varying temperatures would rotate throughout the year. And the sun would rise and set on every new day. What a blessing to be able to rely on predictable events no matter how ordinary.

While our culture seems to thrive on excitement and drama, we all need the ordinary seasons of life to keep us healthy and strong. The adrenaline rush that God has given us to meet threats and even pleasurable excitement can take a toll on our body. We need the gift of the ordinary to get the rest we need.

I am sure Noah and his family were so happy when life settled down into a new routine. The cycles of life must have been a great comfort after all they had experienced. We, too, need this downtime in our busy world. Many are addicted to the speed and excitement of the life we live, but take it from Noah: God’s gift of the ordinary is an incredible blessing for which we should all be grateful!

Love,

Mama