Morning Devotional 031725 Never Forgotten

Liz’s Morning Devotional: Scripture selected from Upper Room

  March 17, 2025

Genesis 8:1-5

1 God remembered Noah, all those alive, and all the animals with him in the ark. God sent a wind over the earth so that the waters receded. 2 The springs of the deep sea and the skies closed up. The skies held back the rain. 3 The waters receded gradually from the earth. After one hundred fifty days, the waters decreased; 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, the ark came to rest on the Ararat mountains. 5 The waters decreased gradually until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the mountain peaks appeared.

Good Morning. Wishing all a special blessing this morning!

As a student of history, I have long marveled over the endurance of our ancestors. Each endeavor took so much work and contained so much uncertainty. Even the things we manage without a thought were challenging. We turn on a faucet and expect to have usable water at our fingertips. If we turn it one way, we have room temperature water, the other way, hot water. 

Nothing amazes me more than their resilience to travel. Traveling just a few miles was often fraught with danger. For those who chose to cross the mighty seas, they would go months with nothing but water on the horizon. The only thing that is comparable to that in danger and time today is space travel to Mars or beyond.

Imagine sitting on a boat for days on end. The days of nausea would be interrupted with days of fear when the waters got rough and the boat was tossed. Some of you might be feeling a little queasy just thinking about it. It wouldn’t be uncommon for us to think or even shout, “How long, O Lord?” 

What a day of rejoicing it would be when the first sight of land appeared! Perhaps with the excited anticipation, we would also be impatient as the moments still took days to reach the shore and prepare to disembark. For Noah and any of those early travelers, this was not the end of their perilous times. Once the land opened itself to them, the arduous task of gathering food, acquiring safe water, and building shelters began. 

During our twenty-first-century journeys, God remembers us. God comforts, loves and protects us even when it seems the light has been overtaken by darkness. God’s love is omnipotent! By God’s grace, we are saved from our earthborn challenges to rejoice together on our day of deliverance: our arrival day!

Loving Lord, Maker of all things!  Help us open ourselves to your love and strength as we journey toward you. Thank you. We love you, Lord! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Thought for the day: Waiting for God doesn’t mean God has forgotten us.

God never forgets us! Pastor Liz