Stuck in the Boat

Genesis 8:13-17

13By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. 15Then God said to Noah, 16“Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”

Last week we saw that after a hundred and fifty days of floating, Noah and his family finally landed on Mt. Ararat. That was on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of Noah’s six hundredth year. But the passage above says it wasn’t until the twenty-seventh day of the second month of Noah’s six hundred and first year that they got out of the ark. That's a lot of numbers, so, to sum it up, it took about seven months after landing on Mt. Ararat before Noah’s family could leave the ark.

Noah and his family floated around waiting to land for five months. Then, for seven more months, they were stuck in the ark on that mountain waiting to be released!

Seven. More. Months.

So close, but still so far away.

Sometimes, when we’ve finally landed after a season of waiting, we expect to be able to hit the ground running. But that’s not always the way it happens.  

Sometimes God doesn’t release us to run because the ground around us isn't quite ready for us.

So, if you feel like you’ve landed on the mountain but you’re still stuck in the ark, may Noah’s story help you remember that God knows exactly when those doors will open. He knows when the conditions around you will be ready for you, and He knows when you’ll be ready to be released into them.