Where Is Your Ark?
A HUMOROUS card sent to me depicted Noah's ark with pairs of animals, wide-eyed with amazement. Standing at the door of the ark, Noah himself looked stern. Torrential rain was falling and the water was rising. They were all watching a horse-obviously two people in a horse costume- trotting up the gangplank. The caption read: "Two sinners made a desperate attempt to get aboard the ark."
The Bible says that God favored Noah because he was good, faithful, and obedient. God instructed Noah to build an ark-a covered floating vessel-and to take refuge in it, along with his wife and family, and with a pair of every animal species in creation. The earth was about to be destroyed by a flood, brought on by the sinful lifestyles of its inhabitants. As the water rose, the ark floated, and all its passengers were saved (see Genesis, chaps. 6-8).
The Bible explains how Noah was aware of his relation to God, and shows that God was supreme in his life. It was for this that Noah was saved.
Who doesn't want to find safety when the rain falls and the floods rise in daily living? And might not Biblical catastrophes such as the flood symbolize the consequences of wrongdoing? Yes, we can learn a lesson from the story of Noah, and take refuge in our own ark. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, a book by Mary Baker Eddy, includes a glossary. The author included in it descriptions of Biblical people and places, which are designed to convey their underlying spiritual meanings. This helps readers clarify their understanding of the Bible's significance. The descriptions offer healing solutions to present-day problems. The description for ark reads in part: "Safety; . . . the understanding of Spirit, destroying belief in matter.
"God and man coexistent and eternal; Science showing that the spiritual realities of all things are created by Him and exist forever. The ark indicates temptation overcome and followed by exaltation" (p. 581).
So, your ark is really your closeness to God, your present relation to Him. And God is extending an open invitation to you, in the words of Isaiah: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (45:22). Noah looked to God and was saved. And we can be saved, from sin, sickness, and the consequences of wrongdoing. We are certainly never safe while we are sinning, covering up evil, or disguising it, and this isn't what will save anyone from sin's consequences. (It's what the people dressed up as that horse were trying to do!) There was no way to enter Noah's ark without being ready. And we can't find salvation either if we're not ready for it.
Christian Science, which Mrs. Eddy discovered in 1866, points people to Christ Jesus as the example of salvation. He said that no one can serve good and bad purposes simultaneously. Jesus taught that we cannot worship materiality and spirituality, error and truth, wrong and right. So we have to choose whom we obey as our God. In actual fact, each of us is the image of God, and is spiritual and perfect. Each is inseparable from his or her Maker, God.
Through prayer we can actually turn away from believing we are caught up in habitual wrongful behavior. This behavior follows wrongful thinking, and we can find ourselves willing to change our thinking and return to where we have always really belonged-to the understanding of God. This prayer has to be practiced daily.
Once again, the consciousness of God is the ark. It is a holy place. It is the safest place on earth to be. Everyone can find it. It is where we find peace and identity.
At any given time, you can know that God made you and that you live in Him. And you can find safety in this ark of spiritual understanding.
For thou hast been a shelter
for me, and a strong tower
from the enemy. I will abide
in thy tabernacle for ever:
I will trust in the covert
of thy wings.
Psalms 61:3, 4
