"Come out of the ark"

In a world fallen with violence, which doesn't seem too much different than today, God commanded His righteous child Noah to build an ark and preserve creation during a violent flood that would steal the breath of all living things on earth. The scriptures say that once the ark was assembled and the rains started to pour, "God shut him in" (Genesis 7:16). I'm not sure if this meant that Noah was trapped, or not, but I'd never seen God's hand there before, closing the door and protecting His chosen child from what was about to take place.

As I pondered Noah's story, I thought... perhaps it's not too much different than our own, for a storm is coming someday: not of water, but of fire. A storm that was written about in Luke 3, and one that John called "the good news," though I've always had a hard time seeing fire as good. Then again, God's fire doesn't always burn, like in the case of the burning bush. By His fire, He will refine all of creation and restore all things; who knows what will remain untouched. Certainly, we cannot know. We, like Noah, merely step into the ark that is Jesus; we reside in Him through the storm. Unlike Noah, we are are not the only ones with the invite, or perhaps it's best to say, we are all invited: we are all seen by God as worthy of stepping aboard, though none of us is truly worthy: our hearts corrupt with violence since childhood, He says. Nonetheless, God shuts us in as the storm carries on outside, and evil perishes from the ground of the earth.

But the fire recedes, just as the water did, and what will it be like to hear God say, or what was it like for Noah when he heard, "Come out of the ark"?

With his family, and with the pairs of every creature, he filed out and felt the familiar sensation of dust on his toes, and breathed the familiar air. No more violence. No more corruption. Nothing left to fear in this new covenant with God, marked by a vibrant rainbow in the sky. Post-flood earth must have felt like the new Eden to Noah and his family; it must have felt like heaven, for he had been kept alive and given back the earth as the gift it was always made to be from the God who loves us.

Whatever it looked like for Noah, I think that's as close as I can get to imagining heaven. Perhaps even more so than the Garden of Eden, because Adam and Eve never knew what they were living in, but there's something about having been through a fall... something that makes the gift seem so much sweeter. Perhaps because creation drips with mercy now; it spills over with the promise of being restored; it screams of a future without violence... a future that is on the way. I love imagining the sound of God's voice saying, "Come out of the ark." I can see myself standing there, standing here... I'm standing next to Dad, and all of the animals of the earth and every other covenant being is standing with us. I love that I cannot know any of this for sure, but that it feels sweet and mysterious to imagine, and I love that my imaginings are probably barely a sliver of the good things He has in store.

Thank you, Jesus, for opening yourself up in the midst of the storm and shutting us in. You are my refuge and my hiding place; you are the beauty in my life.