Advent Day Three | Fr(ACT)ured

Advent Day Three | Fr(ACT)ured | Genesis 9:15(b)

"And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."

There were moments in my life (and I'm sure in yours as well) where something shifted fundamentally and the person I was in the before is not the person I am in the after. These moments hold a certain terror and a certain grace. They are marked by a moment of suspension, during which disbelief, disorientation, indescribable, almost feral, emotions unfold. Life cleaves. I fracture and am never the same.

I am not the same. And, yet, I am. These moments of fundamental change happened to me. He acted unforgivably. His helicopter went down. She was taken violently and too soon. He was elected. Those things happened.

I met him. She was born. And, she was too. I was called. And, I acknowledged it. Those things happened too. 

And so much more. 

All of it, in its entirety, is my life. Although utterly unbelievable in the moment, with time, fractures do heal (although they still throb when the weather is cold or rainy or sometimes both). 

Certainly Noah knew that moment. He threw back the cover of the ark and found a world that he did not recognize. Terror. Grace. A moment of suspension. Disbelief. Disorientation. Fracture. Everything was gone. (Except for him and those with him, he (they) remained). And, yet, God makes a covenant with Noah, saying "and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh." But, the waters didn't actually destroy all flesh (Noah, and those with him, he (they) remained).

Yes, Noah knew that moment. That moment where something fundamentally shifts and you are not the same flesh you were before. But, somehow you are. And, somehow, you heal.

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The image is a painting by Salvador Dali called the Die heilige Bibel (1964-1967).