Waiting out the Storm

I am currently in a Bible study on Genesis and we are on Noah and the flood.  I think it is so easy at times to become so familiar with stories like Noah and the Ark that we gloss over what it may have really been like.  We think of Noah and his family happily working together to build the ark, the animals show up, they all go in the ark to hang out while it rained (a steady, dreary rain maybe) for 40 days and 40 nights, they floated on calm water for a bit, then the water goes away, they come out and all is well again, without all the bad people to deal with.  We don't realize Noah spent over a year to build the ark while friends and neighbors probably ridiculed him mercilessly.  It had never rained before so no one, not even Noah, had any concept of water coming from the sky, storms or floods.  When the rain came, it was probably more like a hurricane with torrential rains, coupled with volcanic eruptions and massive tsunamis.  This was a storm of such immense proportion, it literally wiped out the entire world.  Not just a small forest and a little village of a few hundred people, an incredible civilization that some scholars estimate could have easily been over 1 million (given length of life and potential birth rates).  Even if you don't believe that to be the case, the destruction from the tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan is only a small picture of what it could have been like and they are still recovering years later.

I could go on about the debris and potential clean up, but I want to talk about the time also.  The storm lasted 40 days/nights, but they were on the ark for over a year, before they walked out onto dry land.  We know the story had a happy ending, but God didn't tell Noah it would all be over in one year so they could count down on a calendar.  All Noah could do was wait out the storm and then wait for the water to recede.  Trust God and wait.  And wait.  They had plenty to do, taking care of the animals, but I'm sure Noah wondered a few times if they were ever going to get off of the ark.

How many times in life are we in a stormy season, with seemingly no end in sight?  I know too many people going through difficult times and want so badly to see everything work out well right now.  I have been through times myself where it seems like God has forgotten me, or things don't seem to be working out so well.  That's when I have to remind myself that God does love me and there is a rainbow at the end of the storm.  Things may be very different, but God is still with me to provide a fresh start and a wonderful life (I'll leave that for Christmas-time!).

To anyone going through a storm, big or small, my prayers are with you and the rainbow is going to be beautiful.