“The Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.’ And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
“Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark, they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.., male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
“The flood continued forty days on the earth.” Genesis 7:1-17a
Our Lord is on splendid display in the account of Noah and the flood. We see His perfect exactness in every instruction, timing, and attention to detail. And we see woven throughout and shining His love and compassion, the power of His holiness and justice, His measured yet lavish mercy and grace. This is a God we can trust to keep His word.
As with Noah, God graciously and exactly unfolds His plans for us. He prepares and guides with full knowledge of His plans, and reveals what we presently need and can handle. He lovingly does not tell us everything, yet step by step teaches us to obey, trusting and watching for the next thing.
The world can be chaotic, our near future frenzied and uncertain, but God is in control, with a perfect handle on time and holy purpose. Do we fret about what lies ahead, and thus hesitate to follow Him with bold faith? What if instead we trusted that He measures storms, numbers our days, knows best, and suffices? Will we praise Him for His exact, personal, and substantial care? (Job 14:5)
Lord, shut me into Your purposes with full, glad obedience.
As the rain and snow 