Today we're in Genesis chapter 8. This is where the flood subsides and everyone finally comes out of the boat.
My family loves to travel. We love road trips. For those of you who don't know me, we have a large family. So, as much as we love road trips, it's always a great feeling to reach our destination. It is not uncommon for, when we reach our destination and park the van, for our kids to explode out of the confines of the van as if they are experiencing freedom for the first time. Stretching, jumping, sighing with relief. It's a great feeling. I can imagine Noah and his compadres had a similar feeling when the ark door was finally opened after about a year. Freedom.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 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 on it.” Genesis 8:15-17, NIV.
God basically tells them, "Go. Explode out of the confines of this ark and fill the earth." It's sort of like the first creation when the universe exploded from the word of God. This time, it's a new creation exploding out of an ark. It's like the feeling my family gets when we finally exit the van after a 9-hour drive. Ok, so that's may be over trivializing it a bit. I mean, the ark full of animals for a year probably smelled about the same as our van after 9 hours, but other than that....sorry, I digress. Back to Noah. He walked out of that ark on an earth that had just been washed from sin. Brutally, but efficiently. And there he walked. Fresh air. Fresh purpose. Fresh mission. Freedom.
The whole thing is quite symbolic. On this earth, we're faced with a choice. Drown in the consequences of our own sin and depravity—or—accept a way out that God has given us. Jesus is the ark. We aren't entering a literal wooden shelter from the storm, but a spiritual shelter of his forgiveness and grace, marked by a wooden cross. And, after we've accepted that salvation from drowning, we are to feel the same sense of freshness and freedom Noah felt walking out of that ark. Every trace of sin, gone. Freedom to walk forward and multiply the gift of God's salvation all over the world.
Here's what I feel like God is trying to tell me today: some days, I need to pause and again take that breath of fresh air. I need to stop beating myself up and accept forgiveness and grace. As importantly, what if I worked to live my life in such a way that, when others were around me, they felt that same fresh feeling of freedom? That breath of fresh air. That feeling of yawning, arms stretching, legs stretching, and freedom you feel after stepping out of a car after a long road trip and reaching some beautiful destination. That breath of fresh air and fresh freedom felt after stepping out of that ark after being couped up for far too long? That fresh freedom and fresh purpose felt after encountering the cross? I want to do a better job of living my life in such a way that those around me feel like that. I don’t know about you, but in my life, doing a better job extending that breath of fresh air feeling to others looks a lot like extending more grace and forgiveness.
I’ll close with this. I recently read a book by Ryan Hall called Run the Mile You’re In. In the book, Ryan mentions the importance of celebrating the victories of others. That really hit me, because—confession—I spend far more of my time trying to convince other people to spend their time celebrating my victories rather than looking for and celebrating the victories of others. Perhaps you needed to hear that, too. Be a fresh breath to others in the world. Find some else’s victory to celebrate today.
And, yet again, mainly for my own personal enjoyment, here’s this week’s completely unnecessary hip hop rap summary:
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
I'm actually starting to enjoy these "post summary raps"!!!! This one was especially good. Thanks for sharing Josh.