Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” – Genesis 7:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 12, 2015): Genesis 7

 

Child Surrenders to Photographer
Photographer - Osman Sagirli

A picture of a four year old Syrian child surrendering to a photographer has been breaking the hearts of many over the past few weeks. The photo, which was actually taken in a refugee camp in December 2014, shows a small girl with her hands stretched up over her head. The photographer says that he was not close to the child and that he was using a telephoto lens to take the shot, but the child spotted him and believed that the camera was a gun. She surrendered on the spot. The question that many have been asking is in regard to the damage that war is inflicting on a generation of children. The unfortunate truth is that what is being done to these children will mark them in ways that we can’t even imagine. At the age of four, this little girl’s childhood is already gone. She is living a nightmare. And that is something that I am reminded of every time I get to sit and hug my three year-old granddaughter.

The reality is that the conflict that exists in various parts of our world are brought home by pictures like this one. All in a sudden, the violence becomes real. Sometimes we have the uncanny ability to pretend that violence isn’t happening – at least we do emotionally. We know that bad things are happening intellectually, but the violence only makes emotional inroads into our lives when we are confronted with pictures such as this one. We are left with a desire to simply come and hold the child and to protect her from all the violence that is happening around her. We know we can’t, but we desperately want to.

When we put together all the various accounts of the great flood, we are left with a very specific picture. Intellectually, Noah has known that the flood was coming. He has been building the Ark with his sons preparing for the day that the rain would begin to fall. But legend has it that Noah has also been travelling the world with his grandfather, Methuselah, trying to get people to turn towards God one more time. But grandfather-grandson team has failed. And according to legend, God had promised Methuselah that he would not die with the unrighteous of the world. Legend also tells us that Methuselah dies seven days before the rain began to fall. So when God tells Noah that in seven days the rain will start falling, we know that Methuselah has died. What had been intellectual theory is quickly becoming emotional reality. Maybe Noah never really believed that this day would actually come. Considering the close relationship that legend holds existed between Methuselah and Noah, we can guess that right now all Noah wants to do is to sit down and mourn the loss of his ancestor and friend – maybe to hold the lifeless body of Grandpa – to bury him, to try to protect him from the onslaught that was about to take place, to remember all of the stories that Methuselah’s life had produced. But he can do none of this. Because in seven days the rain is going to begin to fall. What had been an intellectual reality was now becoming an emotional one. And while he loved his grandfather, now there were other lives that Noah loved, his wife and children and their spouses, which were dependant on what it was that Noah chose to do next.

Noah could almost hear the sound of rain. There was no time to lose.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 8

Note: Messages from VantagePoint Community Church (Edmonton) are available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find them here.