I sometimes I get so impatient. I tell myself I have waited long enough. Things need to change or I need to change them. Ever feel like that?
Noah must have felt like that after forty days and nights of pouring rain, and five months of floating upon rolling waves in a boat filled with animals and birds. He sent out a raven that flew to and fro across the seas without finding a resting place. Reminds me of the evil one who walks to and fro across the earth seeking someone he can devour. Without God's say-so, neither the raven nor satan finds a place to rest.
The scene shifts when Noah sends forth a dove. Consider a section of Genesis that paints a beautiful image of God's watchcare, and provision.
"8Then he sent forth a dove to see if the waters had decreased from the surface of the ground. 9But the dove found no resting-place on which to roost, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were [yet] on the face of the whole land. So he put forth his hand and drew her to him into the ark. 10He waited another seven days and again sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a newly sprouted and freshly plucked olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the land. 12Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, but she did not return to him any more." Genesis 8:8-12
Noah sent forth the dove and she returned to him. She didn't find a resting place, but she didn't keep batting her wings, flying to and fro. She returned to her master and her master put forth his hand and drew her to him into the ark. Such a beautiful picture. She was willing to return, willing to accept her master's protection. When our Father sends us out, His hand is ever-waiting to draw us back to Himself and to the safety of His rest. After we've waited and rested in God's presence, He sends us forth again. Noah's dove found a resting place, but she didn't stay there after she'd found life. She didn't make her nest and forget her master. She fulfilled her calling and returned to her master, bringing an offering--an olive leaf of hope, of peace. The Lord provides. Noah sends out the dove a last time; he knew she'd be okay. The wrath of God was over. She does not return; God had provided a new home, a new life.
Sometimes we get in a hurry to go, to do. We fail to recognize that we are waiting for a reason. We rush forth, to get away from some confinement we've longed to escape. Yet, so often in our restlessness and impatience we miss the comforting strength and power found in the shelter of God's protection. God has a time for us move out on our own. We must not rush ahead of Him in our dissatisfaction of living the moment we have. His timing is perfect. In that perfection we find the new life--the olive leaf--the sustaining life of contentment He alone provides. selahV
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