First Friday in Advent: Second Chances

Tonight the boys built an ark out of Duplos. For our Advent devotions we read from Genesis 6:5 - 7:5 where God looks at how corrupt and violent the world has become. He can only find one righteous man, and it grieves Him so He decides to wipe out all life. But Noah is given the absurd command to build a huge boat to save his family and a representation of all the species. And it was an absurd thing to do. It has never rained on the earth at this point. Never. Genesis 2:6 tells us that misty streams arose out of the earth to water the vegetation. So for Noah to question God in having him build a boat would have been the sensible thing to do. For him to brush off the command would have been almost logical. But Noah is a man of faith and he obeys.

The reading tonight pointed out that we often think God sent the flood to remove all life because He was angry and vengeful. But Tamara Buchan (author of Seeking the Christmas Lamb, the devotional we using) suggests this that another conclusion is this: "God was so in favor of what He had created that He was providing a second chance." I like that thought. After all, when God created everything He declared it was all "good." When we brought sin into the world, we corrupted everything. The Flood was an opportunity to try and put things back to "good."

We all mess up. A lot. But God is a god of grace. He gives us all second chances. In the waiting of Advent may we grasp hold of opportunities to receive those second chances.