“Bet you can’t eat just one!” Do you remember that potato chip commercial? As I do the eternal dance with dieting, I realize that once I break down and eat “one,” thinking that will satisfy the desire, so often it leads to “two” and the battle is lost. Perhaps that is the definition of addiction. The third story in our larger epic is the story of Noah, Genesis 6:5-7:24.
Yesterday we heard about the epic problem, we are separated from God – we don’t walk face to face with him anymore and out actions separate us from each other. It appears the villain, Satan, has the upper hand. Humanity has put their hand in the bag of potato chips and for sure, one chip did not satisfy! Today’s story opens with humans separated from God but God is watching them, they just don’t know it. Society has spiraled downward as people follow “the inclinations of their desires” and live for self.
God’s reaction is “grief” and his “heart is filled with pain.” Parents watching a child make decisions leading to self-destruction understand this pain. Watching someone we care about suffer whether because of bad choices or because of disease or because of political conflict and prejudice or hunger or whatever, wrenches our heart. Today government is trying to put an end to repercussions of the Tulsa massacre in 1921, is trying to deal with children refugees on our borders, is trying to deal with environmental problems – just to name a few. We know this dilemma. We live the pain.
God, unlike government that deals in laws and wrangles with getting congress to agree on solutions, is able to see the hearts of people and God could see that Noah was willing to listen and obey. Noah sought to please God and God saw. God’s “intervention plan” for dealing with humanity spiraling downward and destroying itself was the flood. Noah and family were saved to start a new world. The earth was not destroyed. A new beginning was made possible. God’s light began to shine again.
It is always easy to see the shortcoming of the other person when confronted with sin. But in fact, we all have our hand in the cookie jar, thinking we will only eat “just one.” There is a God watching and wanting the best for us. He does see those desires of our heart and knows if we are trying to please him and obey. Today let us pray for our own areas where an “intervention plan” might be needed and for our world today that needs help. Name maybe three areas and pray for a few minutes. Our epic story will continue tomorrow to see how God continues this plot. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 