As I was reading a board book about Noah and the Ark today to my one year old, I had such a strong visual of God shutting the door to the boat.

¹⁷ “Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. ¹⁸ But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. ¹⁹ Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. ²⁰ Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.”

²² So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.

 When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. ² Take with you seven pairs—male and female—of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice, and take one pair of each of the others. ³ Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird. There must be a male and a female in each pair to ensure that all life will survive on the earth after the flood. ⁴ Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.”

⁵ So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him.”

– Genesis 6:22 to 7:1-5

Today I was struck by the fact that God returned to Noah after he had finished what the Lord had assigned him.  He did exactly as the Lord commanded.     The time frame for this first bit seemed to be based on more when Noah finished the work then on a specified timeframe of God.

Is it possible, that sometimes we never see the end of the good story, or that we go through extra devastation, heartache and struggle, chastisement etc because we don’t follow Noah’s example and we give God only partial obedience?  How would the story of Noah read had Noah dilly dallied in the work the Lord assigned him?  Or even worse, had ignored parts of the instruction or improved upon them with his own human intellect and reasoning?  Would he have been able and prepared to load up the boat and make the final provisions had he neglected any part that he was to complete before?   Are we faithfully preparing ourselves for this kind of service to the Lord?

I am amazed and inspired by Noah’s obedience… to build a boat in the middle of the desert, surrounded by evil people, who no doubt mocked him to no end as he walked this thing out in complete obedience to God.   Oh that we would have his courage and determination to follow the Lord in all, with all, without question.