The Expert Carpenter


14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. Genesis 6:14-18

Either Noah was an master carpenter or he was about to become one. God had given Noah a rough outline for the ark but no details. And He told him the ark’s purpose. Experts estimate it took 55-75 years to build the ark so we can assume his three boys helped somewhere along the way. Fifty five years is a long time to work on a project with the promise that this project will save you and your family. He must have undergone prolonged ridicule for his bold new project, but he pushed on until he was completed. What an accomplishment.

We can learn a few things from this. First, God is not in a hurry even though we might be. Noah really didn’t know long it would take to build this monstrosity. He did have faith that what he was doing was right and of God.

Secondly, little steps every day can add big dividends years down the road. What you are reading is evidence of that principle. I have written almost 4000 posts 11 years after I started the first one. One post at a time. I could never have done it in a week or a month, but one per day adds up. But it took one post a day for about a month to form a habit that would last a long time. Noah kept at his building project year after year really having no idea what he was getting himself into.

Lastly, God still rewards faithful men and women, those who “shlog” through each day but keeping their heads high knowing that there is a reward down the road. Noah’s reward was a finished ark where he would load up with animals and help to repopulate the world after it was said and done.

Which of these resonates with you?


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