8/7/12

As God remembered Noah during the Flood,
He remembers us in most devastating
times.

I just checked my Twitter, and I became curious on one worldwide trending topic. It's a passage in the Scriptures. Genesis 8:7-12 is the 2nd top-trending topic right now on the social media site as I write this. The ironic reason is that the numbers are exactly in the same order as the date of the worse-than-Ondoy storm in month-day-last 2 digits of year numeric form (8/7/12).

I looked up at Bible Gateway, a website full of Bible verses, and read the verses. In the Scripture passage, Noah sent two birds, a dove and a raven, to check out if the floodwater have subsided. The dove just wandered in the sky until the water dried up, while the dove, because the trees were all drenched by the Great Flood, decided to return to the ark Noah built. After a week, he brought the dove out again, and the bird returned with a leaf, signaling that the trees were re-appearing. One more week past, and Noah sent the dove out again, but it never returned. It meant that the flood has completely subsided.

I actually read the entire Chapter 8 of Genesis, and at the first verse, we are given a promise by God. The verse says, "But God remembered Noah (and his family) and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded." As He remembered all the people and animals in the ark, He remembers us too. As my former cell group leader quoted, "The times you think that God is far from you are actually the times God is just near you." Also, like what He said to Noah's descendants Moses and Joshua, the Lord will not leave us and even forsake us. He said that a number of times in the Bible.

The final verse of the chapter is also a promise to us. God said there, "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." The Lord is saying that we may experience storms, trials, and everything not that pleasing to us, but be assured that He will bring a new day full of breakthroughs and blessings to us. God showed that when He sent His Son Jesus Christ to overcome the biggest storm in our lives, the storm of sin.

Again, this storm is just temporary, but if we hold on to God's promise that He remembers us, we will get lasting breakthroughs and reliefs. For further Bible study, read Genesis 6-9. I hope that as we praised God during the times we were devastated by Ondoy, we continue to praise Him during the wrath of Typhoon Haikui.