Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. —Genesis 8:16 (NIV)
This morning the weatherman displayed the week-ahead calendar and every single square showed rain. Even now, there was a downpour outside.
I mopped the kitchen floor to remove my dog’s dirty paw prints. No matter how hard we tried to avoid tracking in mud, dirty floors seemed to be one certainty of spring. I had moved on to the rest of my least favorite chores—emptying the large kitty litter pans and scrubbing the outside of the kitchen trash pail—when my thoughts turned to the ark and Noah’s wife.
Exactly who was this nameless woman of extraordinary patience, courage, and perseverance? I wonder what it must have been like on the ark. I wonder how Noah’s wife coped when she looked out and saw no sun. Where did she fnd hope? When the second dove came back and she knew the end was in sight, how did she feel? Did she worry about what they would fnd after the storm?
My own housekeeping challenges were nothing compared to the diffculties and devastation she experienced, yet I was inspired by her strength and fortitude, and her ability to endure the trip and start over. It had once bothered me that she was not named, but now I realize that, perhaps, it’s because she is meant to represent mothers of families everywhere—because she holds hope and cares for those she loves.
Dear Lord, when I feel tired of cleaning up after a household of kids and cats and a dog in an exceptionally muddy spring, guide me to see that the abundance of dirt refects a house of blessings.
