Advent Day Two | Genesis 8:13

Advent Day Two | Genesis 8:13

"In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying." 

When I was young, I spent a lot of time on my father's peanut farm. Weekends found me in the fields with cousins. If it had rained, small channels would form through the fields. Water cut through red clay. It was breathtaking. We always studied it for a while before we acted on it. We'd build a dam, using stones and small sticks to stop the water's path. Tiny pools would form. We created them. We enjoyed playing God, creating and then destroying and then creating again.

We would check on them day after day until they dried up under the summer sun. The dry channels remained, cutting through the earth, a testament to water come and gone. In the heat of the summer, cracks would form in the packed earth. Things were dusty and dry. Hard. Brittle. It was easy to forget the abundance of those cool, wet channels of water. If enough time passed, we'd pray desperately for rain.

I wonder how long it took Noah to forget the waters of the flood? It seems like it would be hard to forget. But, he did. Surely, he did. Forgetfulness is our way. We always forget. Until it comes again (it always comes again).

Kahlil Gibran said, "In one drop of water are found all the secrets of the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence." 

All that water. The Earth's own full submersion baptism. All that water. No matter how dry it got after the fact, it would be pretty hard to forget. (We always forget).