One on One: Noah

Saturday, February 28, 2026

The Rainbow

A Lenten Series on the number 40!
Noah: 40 days and nights of rain
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 6:5-22; 9:8-17

[Historically, Lent is a 40‑day period of preparation leading up to Easter. It involves reflection, repentance and readiness for the resurrection. Ultimately, it leads us to transformation. The number 40 is significant in the Bible as it is associated with multiple stories of preparation and testing. In this Lenten series, we will be looking at various Biblical stories that revolve around the number 40, and how that applies to us.]

During the fall of 2025, my wife and I took a trip to Maine to visit Acadia National Park. The scenery was beautiful, although the weather didn’t cooperate. We went up on Cadillac Mountain to see the sunset. Instead, the wind was howling and blowing so hard that I had to brace myself or be blown over.

Even though we couldn’t see the sunset on Cadillac Mountain, the next evening we did see it while driving around the park. Although it rained all day, as a result, we were treated not only to a beautiful sunset, but also to a rainbow.

There’s a lot that we can learn about God from the story of Noah. First, God hates sin! At the time of Noah, the world was flooded with wickedness. It was to the point that the Lord even regretted he had ever created humanity. If you’ve ever regretted something, you might be able to relate to how God felt.

⁶So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. NLT

Therefore, God came to a decision. A decision on how to correct what he regretted.

⁷And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.” NLT

Thankfully, the story didn’t end there. Despite the fact that since creation humanity has repeatedly sinned, God has repeatedly provided a way to be reconciled. This is the second thing that we learn about the Lord. He loves us so much that time and again he has provided a pathway back to him. In this case, Noah was the path.

⁹Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. NIV

The Lord told Noah his plans to destroy all of his creation by sending a flood. There would be forty days and forty nights of torrential downpour. But before that, Noah was to build an ark. He, his wife, his sons and their wives, and two of every animal would be safe in the ark.

Despite the fact that there was no body of water nearby, Noah did what God told him. You can imagine that people ridiculed him for building an ark so far from water. You can also imagine that Noah felt discouraged at times during the project.

Anyone who has worked on a building project knows the feeling. Murphy’s Law – “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” – was undoubtedly in play. Despite taking decades to build the ark, Noah persisted trusting God to be faithful.

After the flood, when the ground had dried, God made a covenant with Noah to never destroy his creation again. As a sign of this covenant, he gave Noah the rainbow. The same rainbow that we saw in Acadia.

What a wonderful reminder of God’s love, forgiveness and faithfulness.

¹⁷So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.” NIV

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Now You’re Cooking with Gas!

A Lenten series on Mountaintop Moments
– Noah on the mountains of Ararat
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 8:20-9:17

[In this Lenten series, we will be looking at Mountaintop Moments. These mountains are more than just geographical features. They symbolize divine encounters and moments of revelation, faith and transformation. In other words, meeting God on the mountain top.]

When doing homework during high school, there were times when I would get stuck, especially with math. But I didn’t worry about it because I’d ask my dad for help. The only thing is, he’d never just give me the answer.

Instead, he asked me questions that made me think through how to get the answer myself. And when I finally understood and the light would come on, my dad would always say, “Now you’re cooking with gas!” I had no idea what that meant, but I knew he was praising me, and I would beam with confidence and pride.

There was a time in ancient history when things got really, really bad. The Lord saw how wicked people had become. In fact, the world was full of evil and violence to the point that the Lord regretted that he ever created mankind.

Because of this, the Lord said that he was going to “destroy every living thing — all the people, the animals and even the birds of the sky”. But not Noah, because Noah “walked faithfully with God”.

Therefore, even though there was no large body of water within miles, the Lord instructed Noah to build an ark. The reason that an ark would be needed was that the Lord was going to bring a flood upon the land.

It took Noah decades to construct it. You can imagine the abuse that he received from the wicked people for building such a large boat out in the middle of nowhere. And the cost must have been staggering. Yet, by faith, he continued.

Finally, when it was done, he boarded the boat along with his family and all the animals that the Lord had told him to take. When it stopped raining, the water slowly receded, the land dried and the ark settled on the mountains of Ararat.

Can you imagine what it was like for Noah when he got off the ark? They had lived there for thirteen months and when they came out, everything was dead… including all the people. It must have been shocking!

Yet, Noah’s first response was to build an altar to the Lord and make a sacrifice to him. The Lord was pleased with his sacrifice. And maybe sensing that Noah needed some reassurance, he blessed Noah and made a covenant with him to never destroy all life on earth again by a flood.

On the mountains of Ararat, Noah had a personal encounter with the Lord. And like my dad’s praise of “Now you’re cooking with gas!”, the Lord blessed and praised Noah for his faithfulness and righteousness.

From this story, we can learn a great deal about the character of God. We can see his redemptive nature. That even when mankind is rebellious, evil and violent, he always provides a means for redemption and restoration.

That’s what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Now, all we need to do is to get on the boat and listen for our Heavenly Father to say, “Now you’re cooking with gas!”.