Flood

I was asleep on the sofa when the rhythmic pitter patter of raindrops that had found their way through the window and onto my skin woke me. At once the heavens decided that thunder and lightning were just the right mix to liven up the afternoon. And so, I sat up and for a few minutes, just watched the droplets free fall from the clouds and flick the ground one millisecond at a time.

Then from the nook of my mind where I kept the memories of all those bible stories my mother read to me when I was younger, crept out a little thought. The great flood. Noah’s ark. The cleansing of the earth because, as it was phrased in that children’s story book, “men had become far too wicked.”

We all know how the story goes, but let me remind of how it ended. When Noah and his family came out of the ark and built an altar to praise God, our Lord vowed that never again would He flood the earth… which led me to wonder, what If God hadn’t promised? What if there came a time, when once again men had become far too wicked. And in God’s wise judgment, He’d choose to flood the earth again. What if that was happening right now?

Human as I am, I went right ahead and thought of who to blame. I went and searched the world for people I could label ‘wicked’. It’s those darn politicians, I thought, and their corruption and abuse of power. It’s those gangs, and cults, and secret societies bent on world domination. It’s those kinds of people who use drugs, and kill, and steal, (and litter) and do things of that sort. Then I took a step back and checked myself. I reprimanded my hypocritical self because although these people have done wrong, I am not without my share of sins. We all are not without our fair share of sins. Because if God really was flooding the earth right now, and he picked all the Noah’s of the world to keep safe from the waves and the water that would submerge even our tallest sky scrapers, I’m not certain I’d be one of them. If the world had become far too wicked, nobody would have the right to point the blame to anyone else. After all, before we find the faults in others, we must look to ourselves first. And although we’ve all heard that before, sometimes we just need a little reminder, well I know I did.

By the time I finished writing this, the rain had mellowed down. And the thunder kept to himself. And the lighting no longer sent flashes of light across the sky. Because of course, God wasn’t flooding the earth, because He did make a promise. And we’re pretty darn lucky He did.