Not even 30 days ago, a now-famous hurricane named Irene turned into a tropical storm and left behind a lot of water.  So much water that little brooks turned into raging rivers, and rivers burst out of their normal boundaries.  The water levels advanced, furiously, to the point of swallowing fields and farms, burying roads, and slamming into covered bridges that had stood intact for a century.

I saw firsthand some of the flood’s effects in my area – scenes of an athletic field transformed into a lake several feet deep, several miles of a paved river walk submerged under water, a road completely impassable, a large hose sucking water out of a school building.  The landscape was totally transformed, sculpted into a new, if temporary, water clogged flood zone.

Amazingly, after only a week, the waters found their way back into their established banks, pulled by some unseen force of gravity from the land they had previously enveloped.  This happened.  We expected this to happen.  If the flood had remained permanently, we would not understand it – it would appear that something was drastically wrong.  The floods recede, they always recede.  Whether it takes a week or a month, eventually the land returns and the waters return to where they belong.

The story of the great worldwide flood is embedded in ancient literature, and especially in the Holy Bible.  The astronomically-proportioned flood that turned the whole earth into an ocean, as related in Genesis, was sent by God to pronounce judgement on the human race, who were wicked.  As Genesis relates, “Every intention of the thoughts of (man’s) heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5

So, the rains came.  Forty straight days.  Click here for the rest of the story. Only Noah and his household, plus the animals in the ark, were preserved from the tremendous waters that engulfed the mountains, killed every person and living thing on the earth, and remained for 150 days.

The story, however, does not end here.  The LORD could have ended it here.  But He chose not to.  The waters eventually recede.

And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated.  Genesis 8:1-3.

And our floods, eventually, disappear, too.  Noah may have been surprised when land appeared again, but we aren’t.  It is universally expected that the waters will recede.

In the flood’s aftermath, though, there is a reminder of where the waters have been.  A ruined crop of potatoes.  A moldy basement.  A destroyed bridge.  A ruined home.  Or the gray filmy residue hovering on grass, trees and vegetation, marking the progressive rise of dirty water as it claims more territory.

I liken floods, in the figurative sense, to the situations and events that, like rising water, threaten, and do, overwhelm our lives.  The analogy carries so well. Just as the residents of New Orleans scurried to the third floor or roof of their homes, helplessly witnessing the water engulfing their streets and houses, we can try to get out of harm’s way as a flood hits our life.  Yet, it doesn’t change the sense of helplessness and vulnerability we feel in the midst of it.

Also, in a flood, water goes where it is not supposed to.  It’s interesting to observe a river overflow its banks, but there is a sense of the wrongness of this happening.  Similarly, in life, there is that “this is wrong” when tragedy, or injustice, or unexplained illness or death occurs, flooding our senses with angst and despair.  Recently, I have seen seen the flood waters of illness and disease engulf the lives of two friends and their families, and the pain and disorientation it is causing them.

And finally, if we follow this analogy through, the flood waters recede.  It will not always be a flood zone in our lives.

God has made an ancient covenant which He honors to this day.  I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. Genesis 9:15

So we, like Noah and every living thing, will not be destroyed, it is God’s promise.  We can expect to regain a sighting of land and find our bearings after a flood sweeps through our lives.  The waters will recede.  They will leave a mark behind, but they will recede.