Impending Separation

Back to Noah and his Mrs…

Once Mrs accepted the truth, that whenever the ark was completed change would come, she had a lot to think about and a hundred plus years to prepare. She’d had friendships for centuries. There were friends and children of friends she may have watched grow up. There were memories. There was the midwife who had delivered her sons, the friend who she had known as long as she could remember. Undoubtedly there was a circle of loved and not so much loved acquaintances.

Now Mrs was faced with the knowledge that whenever the time came, she would be separated from them all. She wasn’t just moving away, but the separation would be permanent and deadly. As Mrs was occupied with taking care of her family and supporting Noah in this monumental task, she had the knowledge beforehand that only she and Noah, their sons and their wives would be alive when the door of the ark opened once it was shut.

I wonder if Mrs thought about that every day. As she visited her friends, laughed alongside them, walked and worked with them, in the back of her mind, Mrs knew. I wonder if she grieved beforehand, if she used the time she had thinking of the future and not enjoying the moment.

Sometimes we are like that. We get so focused on thinking of our children’s future or our parents’ future demise, or our friend’s bad diagnosis, that our time with them isn’t about the now. The stresses on relationships and responsibilities can, if we aren’t careful, be the thief of our today.

I hope Mrs was patient as her friends laughed at her husband’s project, was kind as she spent time with them, showed them love every moment she had with them. She was the wife of the man God said was perfect in his generations, so I like to think Mrs was all of those things.

Let’s examine our own heart and our own behavior toward those who gave us life,  those to whom we gave life, to our mates and those we work around every day. Let’s not let pettiness or a need to be right at the expense of peace, or our responsibilities of tomorrow, steal our “today, this moment” because unlike Mrs, we don’t have the foreknowledge of our futures or those we love. Let’s love beyond our assumptions of a tomorrow. As Godly women, let’s make a daily commitment to those in our lives. Let’s love like there’s no tomorrow. May the only thing we leave out of our today be anything that will steal the joy of  the people we encounter or embrace. Let’s not grieve beforehand. Let’s fill lives with showing love, embracing the present, and leaving a legacy of joy.