Carey Kinsolving – 
Eight-year-old Nicole said that when Noah said that he had built an ark, no one believed him; he loaded all his stuff, it flooded, and he lived.
A child who once appeared on Art Linkletter’s TV show, Nicole thought that the lesson of loading all the animals two-by-two was obvious: “If you do not get married, you will be left behind.”
Ten-year-old Jenna said, “We should be more like Noah, because he was the only person of his generation who obeyed the Lord. Even though Noah lived in a generation described as corrupt and violent, he found grace in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6).
Today’s world
Corruption and violence: does this sound like the evening or the morning newspaper?
“Everyone except Noah was wicked. He probably had a lot of peer pressure,” eleven-year-old Maria said.
If Noah lived in our day, late night comedians would never run out of material for jokes. Right up until the day Noah closed the door to the ark, I am sure that people were telling the latest Noah jokes. Who but a crackpot would build a gigantic ship with no water around?
Brittany, 11, said that we learn from Noah to resist peer pressure and ridicule by doing what God says: “Even if people doubt you and say you’re crazy, just ignore them. Remember, you’re doing it for God.”
Talking to God
Noah is described as a just man who walked with God. Anyone who walks with God can resist the temptation to go along with the crowd, even when the crowd resorts to ridicule.
Another lesson we could learn is, “Don’t laugh at your neighbour because they might be right,” ten-year-old Rebekah said.
The laughter of Noah’s peers stopped the day it began to rain. The good news is that God made a covenant (symbolized by the rainbow) that he would never again destroy the world by water. The bad news for the scoffers of this generation is that the flood is only a token of a greater judgment to come.
Jesus’ Comparison
Jesus compared the people of Noah’s day to the generation who will witness his triumphant return to the earth. Like Noah’s generation, they will engage in the normal activities of life with no thought of an impending judgment by God.
Jesus said that he will return “at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44).
Just as God provided the ark in Noah’s day, he has prepared a safe haven from judgment in our day. The floodwaters, according to the Apostle Peter, symbolise baptismal waters, and baptism symbolises salvation through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Peter 3:21-22).
Carey Kinsolving is an Auckland based storywriter and the above is a part of ‘Kids Talk about God’ distributed by Creators Syndicate. © 2017 Carey Kinsolving
