Trust the Timing

     We are studying Genesis again this year in BSF. It no longer surprises me that I find new gems every time through this very familiar book, and recent lesson on Noah's ark. This time I was struck by God's precise timing of the events of the flood. For instance, on the 17th day of the second month of Noah's 600th year, the floodgates of heaven opened and the 40 days and nights of rain began. (Gen. 7:11) On that very day . . (Gen 7:13) The waters flooded the earth for 150 days. (Gen.7:24) On the 17th day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on Ararat. On the first day of the 10th month, the tops of the mountains became visible. (Gen 8:5) By the first day of the first month of Noah's 601st year, the waters were drying up. (Gen 8:13) By the 22nd day of the second month, the earth was completely dry. (Gen 8:14) God planned precisely when the flood would begin, when it would end, and when Noah could come out. If I had been on the ark, by the time the dove came back with the olive branch, I would have been crawling out the window.

     Far from being a fable, the flood account sounds like it was written by an accountant or a statistician. My take away from all this detail--trust God's timing. After many months of involuntary quarantine with all those animals and, even more challenging, his family, Noah waited on the ark until God called him to come out. He trusted God's timing. I shared this with our women's prayer group. Some of us have had outstanding answers to prayer--a daughter in her 40's finally sober, my own son's sobriety. Meanwhile the woman who started our prayer group for prodigals is still waiting for her daughter to spit out the kool-aid of our current culture. What's the holdup? God's timing. I think of the seeds of God Word that we plant in the hearts of our children as little time bombs. It is wiser to wait for God to set them off than to keep whacking them with a hammer to speed up the process. And wind up destroying the relationship instead of the sin. Our sober successes did not get that way overnight. God has appointed the time and the means, so we pray as her young daughter travels, mostly alone, to foreign countries that God will mine her path with believers she might listen to.

    I had an opportunity to share this with my son recently. After asking my advice about how to approach his manager about a raise, he was disappointed that the man left before he could talk to him. I told him, "Trust the timing". I did not say trust God's timing because he already knows that's what I meant (he's known me all his life), no need to use a hammer. The next day, when he did talk to the manager, he not only gave him a raise, but said he had already been thinking about it. Timing. It has been encouraging to see my son recognize for himself how God is working in his life. The spark is there. I can throw a log on it trying to speed things up (not recommended for starting a campfire), but only the Holy Spirit can fan that spiritual spark into flame. After decades of looking for ladders to climb out the window of the ark, I at last realize I should pursue the plan of the One who provided it. And trust the timing.