The ark of obedience
By Robin
Hanging on the chapel walls at Casa “La Vale” (“Valley” House) are nine small paintings, each reflecting one of the nine Lifestyle Celebrations of WMF. Each month, a different Lifestyle Celebration guides our morning chapel times. During the month of October when we celebrated obedience, I often positioned myself in front of the painting bearing this name. Written below the painting is Gen. 6:22 (KJV): “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.”
In the painting, Noah is building the ark. But what really drew my attention was the large elephant standing next to Noah, crowding the scene. I wonder if while Noah was working, he was thinking, “How will I get that elephant into the ark?”
If Noah was anything like me, his mind would have been busy considering all the related details and implications of God’s outrageous call to obedience. After all, there are many things to consider when your task is to build a giant boat, fill it with animals of every kind and leave the rest of humankind to destruction.
Though God’s calls for obedience in my life may not be so dramatic, I still grapple with the questions and doubts that arise. How will I get that elephant into the ark? Has God really thought this through? Is this some sort of joke? I fear that ark of obedience. I don’t know where it’s going. I don’t know where God is leading me. Maybe I’m hearing God all wrong?
It is amusing to me that in the painting, Noah does not appear paralyzed in fear, but rather presses on in his work of obedience, even while the elephant of questions and doubt remains. Perhaps he continues because something else is present, something I didn’t notice at first: a dove, hovering in the upper corner of the painting, gently reminding Noah that God is near.
The God who calls us to obedience is also present and intimate with us. Obedience and intimacy go hand in hand.
This fall, I have sensed in the air a wild mix of hopes and disappointments, changes and constancy, beginnings and endings. Our community in Galati is going through a time of many transitions. Many of us have been asking God, “Where are you leading us?” At times I’ve been overwhelmed with doubt and fear and questions. Yet one morning in chapel, these words met us:
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isa. 41:10).
Where do I need to be obedient today? I stare at Noah on the wall. Perhaps my call to obedience is not something so dramatic as building an ark, but rather a simpler call to rest in the peace of knowing that God is present with me. And God is present with our community. May we continue in our work, not paralyzed by the fear of our doubts and questions, but rather working in peace as we remember the intimate presence of God with us. “Do not fear, for I am with you.”
Robin and her husband, Joshua (pictured), live in Galati, Romania. Robin cannot wait for spring, when she can watch things grow and start working again in the flower garden at Casa “La Vale.”