Lean back. Relax. Open a good book. Have fun with stories we don't normally make time for, that might be that little summer fling that changes your life.
This summer we leave the heroes behind -- the Moses's, Davids, Isaiahs, Daniels, Peters and Pauls who both inspire us and make us feel small, who seem to live their faith so boldly that they become larger than life-as-we-know-it.
Time to look at the little people in the stories -- some of the background supporting cast, the extras, the sometimes-nameless people with only one line to say (or no lines at all!) but without whom the story just would not be able to turn out as it does.
People like us?
Maybe as we take the time to look at their stories with a little imagination (!?!?), these "little people" of the biblical stories can show us something of the working of God over and through all.
We start with Noah's wife. Yup, Mrs. Noah!
Read Genesis 6, 7, 8 and 9 Read it again. If you want just a selection of verses, read
6:9-19a; 7:6-7, 11-14; 8:13-19; and 9:1, 8-11.
From the story:
What is Noah's wife's name?
And where does Noah's wife -- the woman who was told she had to leave her home, her garden, her pantry and her friends behind ... the woman who became den mother to a messy menagerie ... the woman who became mother to all post-Flood humanity -- where does she seem to rank in the family hierarchy, according to the teller of the story?
Sometimes the more interesting stories of the Flood are those told by other voices. Like Timothy Findley's imaginative tale, Not Wanted On the Voyage, told through the thoughts of Mottyl, an old cat loved by Noah's wife, but disliked by Noah who a number of times tried secretly to do away with it.
I wonder how Noah's wife would tell the story of the Great Flood.
How it might be different from the "authorized" version.
And what we do when different voices -- once nameless and silent, start being heard, giving their version of the story we once thought we all knew and agreed on?
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