Be Kind. Rewind.

Most of us have heard the story of Noah's Ark hundreds of times and probably all have similar memories. We picture this cute little boat, floating on a calm sea, the sun shining in the background and fluffy animals poking their heads out of the windows. Noah sits atop the ark, smiling as if everything is alright with the world. The ironic thing is that everything was not alright with the world.

Think about it. God had just destroyed the world and millions of people were killed. God's judgment had just been poured out on humanity and only a remnant (Noah's family) were spared. The Bible says that sin became so great that the heart of humanity was "evil all the time". Needless to say, things had gotten pretty bad! This is a far cry from the cute Sunday school stories that we remember!

I've meet many folks that don't believe in God. One of the arguments that I hear revolves around the story of Noah and the flood. Some people feel that God must be evil, or at least have the propensity of evil, in order to wipe of all of humanity; including little children. Understandably, the feel that a god that would commit this kind of act could not be good, but only vindictive and angry. I've heard some argue that this story only proves that God is not perfect. After all, being all knowing, did He not know that man was going to rebel against Him? Did He not know that He was going to have to resort to wiping out the majority of the population? That's a pretty big oversight! I mean, why did God create man in the first place?

But after listening to objections, and trying to understand where folks are coming from, I've realized that these false conceptions are just because most people don't understand the nature of God.  Was God angry? I'm sure He was. And can we blame Him? But was His anger any different than a Father and a child, when the child disobeys and really screws up? Being a father myself, I can relate to this paradox. In one moment we can be so angry with our kids that we want to explode, and the next second want to hold them in our arms and makes things all better. And I think that is the essence of this story. Yes, we get glimpse of a God that was angry, and the judgment that followed. But we also get a picture of a God that had His heart broken and although the pinnacle of his creation, His children, slapped Him in the face, He gives us another shot.  A divine "do over", if you will.   

This story is not a happy story filled with warm fuzzys, when you think about it. Don't get me wrong. The story ends with hope, redemption and the love of God granting humanity a second chance. But the story also focuses on God's judgment of a rebellious people. He rewinds the tape, edits the movie and starts it over again.

So, those of us that are parents, and those that work in children's ministry, we have a tough job. How do we teach kids the story of Noah's Ark, include the fun images and still get across the essential theme of God's judgement? How do the two go hand in hand? Do I have the answer? I'm not sure. But I think a good starting place is teaching them about who God is. God is God, and when we use that as a starting point, the other elements seem to fit into place. A God of judgement is still a God of love.  If not, He would be something less than God. Less than a Father.  There's no real conflict here when you think about.