AN ARK OF OUR OWN

Mass evacuation, a true story: Hurricane Rita, September, 2005:
         
            Fleeing down Hwy 71, nearing the I-10 underpass at Columbus, Sharon and I saw them.  How many were they?  As far as we could see both ways the traffic was bumper to bumper.  As we passed under I-10, the realization hit us, those poor folks were going nowhere in that 150 mile traffic jam from Houston to San Antonio.  And pressed on by the mass of humanity behind us on 71, we prayed.

            2005, as the heart breaking aftermath of hurricane Katrina continued for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, the Gulf of Mexico churned once again.  A massive 180 mile per hour Hurricane Rita barreled straight at our little ranch near the Texas Gulf Coast.  I was going to stay to take care of the cattle, but wife Sharon demanded otherwise.

            So the wife and I evacuated along with border collie Candy and white rabbit, Bunny FuFu.  It was off to see Aunt Lou and Uncle Don, two hearts of gold, in Austin, Texas.  Our refuge there will always be fondly remembered.

            Now Aunt Lou and Uncle Don were amazed by our dog and rabbit sleeping and eating together in their fenced in back yard.  And I say this not casually, does it kind of remind you of how the animals in Noah's Ark must have got along, maybe even remind of a Bible verse in Isaiah of the wolf and the lamb laying together.

            Prompted by disaster coverage on TV, Uncle Don and I soon got into a discussion of the Bible and in particular Noah's Ark.  Uncle Don took the position that the Ark was not real, but a story meant to teach us moral lessons. I explained that in September of 1960 Life Magazine published Turkish military photos of a tremendous boat shaped object in the mountains of Ararat; and that in August of 1977 archaeologist Ron Wyatt was invited by the Turkish government to examine the ship. Ron found the Ark dimensions exactly matched that ordered by God in the Bible, discovered the Ark's massive stone anchors and mapped out the ships deck supports and keel.  In 1986 the Turks built a visitors center at the location.  But Uncle Don remained unconvinced, felt it was a 'flim-flam' and laughed it off.

            Later that day Uncle Don and Aunt Lou treated the wife and I to a trip to the amazing Cabelas Hunting and Sports Center. Now the first thing you see as you walk into this three story mega-plex    is a two and a half story indoor waterfall and mountain populated by scores of animals from all over the world.  Do you see the theme here: animals from all over the world, on a mountain... Noah's Ark?  Do you sense something is about to happen?  We should have. God is a master of 'intricate coincidental detail'.

            Now Cabelas is so huge, a family can easily spend all day there well entertained, but after several hours Uncle Don wanted to treat us to a south Austin restaurant.  We gave thanks, we ate, we joked and at meals end we rose to leave the table.  In rising from his seat, obviously still thinking about our earlier conversation about Noah's Ark, Uncle Don chuckled under his breath, "I still can't believe you think that story is real."

            Uncle Don stood, pushed his chair to table and turned to see standing directly behind him the cutest little less than five feet tall Mexican Grandpa, Grandma and daughter... and in the daughters arms swaddled in a baby blanket... in Uncle Don's own words, "That is the most precious little baby I have ever seen!"

            Folks, that precious little mother with the glow of an angel, held up that precious little baby before Uncle Don's face and proudly beamed as only a new mother can, "HIS NAME IS NOAH."

            Uncle Don's eyes popped round as saucers, his mouth gaped wide open, and Aunt Lou chimed in right on cue, "Well Don, do you think God is trying to tell you something?"


            Well dear people, do you think God may be trying to tell us something?  In his Holy Bible, our Creator has given us the exactly how it was, how it is, and how it will be.

            ...In the hurricane of Life...

            ...Jesus is our only ark of refuge... of salvation...

            In John 14:6, His Son Jesus speaks, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father, but by me."  Please listen to Jesus in Matthew 24:37 KJ, "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

           "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 KJ

            Romans 3:23-26;  6:23; 5:8; 10:9-10; Acts 2:38

            Noah, the ark, the great flood... Genesis chapters 6 thru 9