My husband and I took our kids to the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky this week. As we climbed on the tram to go from the parking lot to the exhibit, I could see a portion of the wooden boat behind the hills between us. As we sped around the last corner – for a moment it felt like we were on a roller coaster, the bus driver was quite comfortable on the windy road – and the Ark came into full view, I drew a deep breath. It was huge. I am not good with measurements and quite unfamiliar with cubits, so I had no clue how massive the Ark really was, but in my mind it wasn’t nearly as large as what sat before me.
We started at the bottom level, checking out each exhibit and reading facts as we moved along. There were a few short films depicting what a tabloid interview with Noah would have looked like thousands of years ago, and another more modern one with the same actors in present day. There were life-sized replicas of birds and giraffe’s and even skillfully designed, robotic replicas of Noah that moved and talked. The one exhibit that really stood out to me was this room that housed seventy-five or more children’s books telling the story of Noah’s Ark. On the cover of every one of them, there was a tiny boat with animals sticking out the sides, depicting a small boat that could never hold all of the animals that the Bible tells us went aboard. The book covers had rainbows and told of the promise God made to never flood the earth again. They were all so cute and colorful, but none of them housed the full truth. The story of Noah is not a cute story – it is an incredibly sad story of an unrepentant group of people and how they died because of their sin and the hardness of their hearts.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Genesis 6:5-6
Let that sink in for a moment. God, the creator of humanity, was grieved in his heart because of the wickedness of man. I am a mother, and there have been times that I have been frustrated with my kids, or had rough days, but I have never been grieved in my heart that my children existed. I can’t even imagine ever feeling that way, no matter what paths my children may go down. I would imagine even the mothers and fathers of murderers have hope of redemption for their children. But humanity had gone too far, was incredibly wicked and continually evil, causing God to destroy every living thing.
As we approached the massive doors in the side of the Ark on the upper level, my heart became heavy. I guess I knew that the Ark and what led God to call Noah to build the Ark was reminiscent of modern times. You don’t have to look far to see evil – in abundance. But what I didn’t think about was the finality of the doors closing and how that is a foretelling of what is to come. Many mock Christians – as they surely mocked Noah – and don’t believe in the coming judgement of Jesus. Standing on the inside of that door it hit me that there is a day coming where we will stand at the gates and our destiny will be decided. Once the Ark doors closed, there was no opening them. And I imagine as the doors were closing, humanity scoffed – until the rain began to fall. It wasn’t until the evidence of judgement was upon them that they believed, but by then it was too late. So often in my life I have put off repentance until tomorrow. When I was in my late teens, I can remember saying to myself “After this New Year’s Eve party, I am going to lay down my sin and follow Christ.” When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to quit smoking. Every evening cigarette was going to be my last one because tomorrow I would quit. It was just as hard tomorrow, and so I rolled it forward for longer than I want to admit. Those of us who have lost friends and family know that sometimes tomorrow never comes. Standing inside the Ark doors, my daughter standing next to me, I realized that I know a lot of people who will be standing on the other side of the door when Christ returns, and it grieved my spirit.
I wasn’t born into a Christian home. I knew evil from a very young age. My sister talks about the darkness that followed her, and it followed me, too. I have lived on both sides of the aisle, if you will. Evil forced itself upon me at times, and at times I invited it in. There was a time in my life that I would have been standing outside the Ark door. In my younger years it would have been a result of ignorance, and in my twenties when I knew truth and had experienced God’s presence, I was just too stubborn to turn, or to be turned. Or maybe sin was pleasurable and I wasn’t ready to crucify my flesh. Or perhaps I just thought I had tomorrow. In any event, I have been on both sides of the Ark door. While there is peace in knowing that I am in the boat, my heart is grieved when I think of those who have not yet found a place inside.
Uncommonly Common Mom 