What Did Noah Find?

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It's been a part of every summer that I can remember...a week of Vacation Bible School with Bible lessons, missionary stories, crafts, and the mandatory snack.

We held VBS at our church last week, and I taught a group of precious 3rd and 4th graders about Noah each night.  Our theme verse was Genesis 8:6, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."

While there was judgment coming and a world full of wickedness around him, Noah didn't find condemnation.

He found grace.

I'm reminded, then, that Noah wasn't perfect.  If he had been, he wouldn't have needed grace.  But God saw him where he was.  He saw that Noah's heart was bent toward pleasing Him, for it's said that Noah walked with God.

Not only that, but Noah was willing to stand alone, when the Bible says about his fellow man that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

What all did it mean, this finding of grace?  It involved love, forgiveness, a plan for his physical salvation from destruction that included a procedure to follow and hard work.

Finding that grace led to the next step - obedience.  Verse 22 of chapter 6 says, "...according to all that God commanded him, so did he."  Again in chapter 7, verse 5, "And Noah did according unto all that God commanded him."

God gave detailed instructions for building the ark and Noah built it just as he was instructed.  Did he understand why everything had to be done exactly the way it was?  I wouldn't think so, at least not at the beginning.  But this wasn't Noah's rescue plan, it was God's, so he did it God's way.

I found grace the day I got saved.  Yet I still need his grace daily to follow the plan He has for me, to obey the commands He has given me to follow.  Just as in Noah's case, I won't always understand the direction my life is taking, but His grace will lead me on.  God has a plan for me to fulfill that will ultimately benefit not only myself, but my family, if I will just follow what He lays out for me to do.