ALIVE: Chapter 19. Circle Back to Meaning - Baptism

I am going to miss Noah and Sha-me, and the rest. These characters had been so alive to me that now that their scenes are over, I wonder where they went and what they are doing, like old friends, like people in heaven.

The account of the Flood is found in only a few short chapters of Genesis, yet bulges with information about life, which in essence is our reflection of, and our relationship with, our Life Giver. These few chapters reveal to us several key insights into the Personality of our thoughtful, intelligent, and emotional God. We also experienced many firsts during the Flood event that could help us to understand the significance of such things as baptism, forty day periods, mercy, and salvation.

As I have started to show the reader, the Flood story is much more than a cute tale about a boatload of animals and a chosen family. The logistics, the ecology, and primitive engineering of this event were also fascinating to think about. I surmised that the Flood explains the extinction of dinosaurs, and Neanderthals; since earlier passages in the Bible mention sea monsters, and sons of God marrying daughters of men. After the Flood there was no such mention of monsters or distinction in kinds of human beings.

First and foremost the Flood is about baptism. It is about the one and only watershed moment in the history of the earth and humankind when God attempted to destroy evil and wickedness with water. It is about wholesale death by water. Water, the primary element in the creation story, was used in full force to kill man and beast and to wipe out vegetation as well. After that, baptism is about re-creation, renewal, rebirth.

To be baptized is to die as one thing and be born again as something else, something better.

This explains why the Bible and the Church call for one and only one baptism. We may receive the Eucharist as often as we want for the remission of sins, but there is to be only one baptism.

The created world died and was reborn once; it was baptized; becoming something else, something better.

In John 3:3-6 Jesus said, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “But how can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked Him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God...”

Even Christ allowed Himself to be baptized by John to mark the end of His life as an obscure son of a carpenter, and to be reborn as the Son of Man, and the Son of God.

As the people of the Eastern Church enter Lent, let's begin by contemplating Baptism. Let's imagine this period of Lent as entering the ark, like Noah and his family, to leave the world of the violent and the dead, and our old lives and gradually, over the next 40 days, to be renewed.

Quickly enter the Ark, closed the door tight and stay inside!

ALIVE: Chapter 18 - The Beginning of Now

Months of hard work building and planting transformed Noah and his family in a new way. They had evolved from being the Chosen Ones in a ghastly world, to fearful survivors of the greatest calamity the earth has ever known, to gradually becoming a small family of children of God. This new chapter in the life of earthbound humanity formed the new beginning that God wanted. Past the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there stood a place of quiet love and mercy, of falling down and getting back up to take two more continuous steps, and then three.

In these early days the family stayed in close proximity to each other, first helping their father with the farm to grow the fruits and vegetables that each family would need to stock a fresh larder that they could take with them to their own countries, to replenish their seed stock, and to multiply the animals for each of the sons' country.

Lazaria, Aurelia, and Coochie, as with most of the female mammals were with child almost constantly since the day they walked away from the mountain of Ararat. Each family gladly heeding the Lord's call to go forth and multiply. Mama Sha-me could not have been happier at the prospect of being surrounded by a flock of cheerful babies and little toddlers. Aurelia was the first to give birth to a healthy little boy whom she named Canaan. Canaan was the delight of the family.

The sun rose bright in the sky of their busy souls.

Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. Within a few years the vines produced enough succulent grapes that he could make wine! Noah's patience and hard work was about to pay off in the currency of sheer delight!

On that fine day Noah stole away from helping his sons to enjoy the fruit of his labor. Wine. He went into his own tent, his man cave, which Noah had erected for himself with the help of his son Shem to have a place of ultimate privacy. Noah was very pleased with himself. He wanted for nothing. The jug of wine was finally ready to meet out its pleasures. It promised to take him to a place in his mind away from chores and squabbles, away from duties and responsibilities, to a sleepy world of wakeful contentment. The wine was delicious! Each sip more admired than the previous one. Mysteriously the deep bloody round body of its flavor transported Noah to memories of his childhood. Of sitting under the broad sycamore tree with his grandfather listening to the old man's vivid stories about the day Enoch disappeared, and the years of waiting for his return. Noah believed that he tasted the smell of his grandfather in the wine and smiled. The sun had been beating down hard on the windowless tent, so hard that he removed his scratchy tunic. The jug was almost empty. "How could this be?" thought Noah to himself remembering the months of labor that led him to this happy place. Sleep stepped in quickly as a salve to Noah's disappointment that he couldn't consume his precious wine and still have it too. He had to say goodbye, never to be enjoyed again. This moment had to be savored for it would never ever return. In attempt to grasp the moment in his drunken mind, Noah curled up in a fetal position and drifted into a deep sleep.

"Father, father where are you?" shouted Ham to no avail. "I need your help. Lazaria, have you seen father?"

"No Ham. Not since this morning. Perhaps he is out in his vineyard. Have you checked there? Or maybe he is in his tent."

"Why would he be in his tent in the middle of the day?!" Ham was frustrated. "That man is always disappearing when we need him most!" Ham stormed over to the place where Noah pitched his tent away from the others. He barged in to find his naked father fast asleep. Ham looked at his wrinkly old father curled up like an infant in its mother's womb and laughed a hearty laugh. He ran out of the tent to find his brothers to show them this ridiculous sight before the old man woke up.

Ham ran back to the sheep coral where he last saw his brothers and spotting them in the distance he called out to them. "Shem, Japheth come here quickly. You have got to see this!"

"What is it Ham; we are busy. What do you want?"

"Just come here, you won't regret it." he called out jovially.

Reluctantly Shem and Japheth put down their tools and went over to see what Ham wanted. They caught up to him and Japheth asked. "Will you just tell us what is so important!"

Ham was chuckling. "Father is drunk and naked in his tent. He is curled up like an infant. It is the funniest sight I have ever seen! Really, you have to look."

"I'll be right with you." said Shem and broke off to find something to cover his father with. He spotted a garment hanging out to dry on the limb of a tree and grabbed it, then caught up with his brothers. "Japheth, here, take one side."

Ham looked at the garment and ridiculed his brothers saying, "What is your problem? Have you no sense of humor?!"

"We don't think our noble father's nakedness is cause for laughter, Ham. Our father should be respected as the patriarch he is and you are treating him like an animal!" barked Shem.

"Shame on you Ham!" added Japheth.

While Ham was turning his ridicule of his father's nakedness upon his brothers for their refusal to enjoy the hilarious sight, Shem and Japheth laid the garment on both their shoulders, and walked backward into the tent of their father and covered his nakedness. They refused to look upon him who had lead them from the clutches of death into this new land of the living. When they felt reasonably sure that he was covered, the men turned to see that he was decent and still at rest and they walked back out of the tent to tend the sheep while Ham stood in dismay watching them leave.

Within a hour, as the sun dropped gradually in the sky, and the cool air returned to the land, Noah surfaced from his deep sleep. He lay there for a while with eyes open thoughtfully assessing his situation. Noah was by then glad for the covering. While trying to remember why he wasn't wearing the garment that lay on top of him, a faint memory of Ham laughing at him struck Noah. "Could that be true?" he thought to himself. "Why would Ham barge into the privacy of his tent and laugh at him?" Anger welled up in Noah's heart as the memory of the event grew more and more vivid in his mind and he said aloud, "How dare Ham treat his father in such a disrespectful manner!" Then Noah stood up, and full of fury exited his tent and proclaimed for all to hear, "Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers."

Ham, who had not gone far from the tent looked up at his father in fear and shame. "What was this man saying?" he thought and looked around to see if his child heard the words of his irate grandfather.

Japheth and Shem looked up too. It was less the volume of Noah's voice that propelled his words through the air, but the willfulness of them, the strength of the curse that magnified them throughout the valley. Even Sha-me looked up from her work at that moment and walked toward Noah's tent to see what was transpiring with her husband.

Noah continued. "Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave."

"May God make space for Japheth, and let him live in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave."

Little Canaan heard his name and ran over to his grandfather. "Grandpa, did you call me?" Canaan's big round brown eyes looked innocently at his angry grandfather in confusion. He sensed the anger and began to cry, tears welling up from his heart and pouring out of his little innocent eyes.

Noah looked back at the balling child upon whom he placed the sin and disgrace of his father. Noah's dignity, his righteousness, his true worthiness as a man of God could not withstand such a demeaning response as he had received from Ham. For Noah knew that it was the reflection of God in Noah that Ham so foolishly disparaged. To the extent that Ham humiliated God, Ham and his children would forever be, should forever be lowered. Noah knew that the disgraceful attitude that caused Ham to disparage his father would surely be conveyed in hundreds of small ways to his son who would learn by them to demean God through the godly that he would encounter day by day. Such disrespect would forever make his tribe lower than the tribe of Shem.

If Noah had allowed Ham to get away with his prank, then it would be as if Noah too, participated in ridiculing himself and the God whom he reflected. After all they had been through, and all that God had done to save them from the grips of death, that was not possible. "May the moon turn black and the stars all fall from the skies before I treat God as an animal, as I was treated by Ham." said Noah to his wife.

The brothers regarded Noah's curses as the brief raving of an angry man. They looked at the child Canaan gleefully chasing chickens, oblivious of the fate his grandfather had just bestowed upon him and thought the child harmless enough. "Who would want to enslave this cherub?" thought his father Ham to himself while shrugging his shoulders and carrying on with his work, determined to distance himself from his father as soon as he could.

That awesome day ended. Nightfall covered man and beast in sleep, but the major event of the day, the curse, began its journey through the centuries.

As their population exploded, the brothers knew when the time had come to divide themselves, each man taking his family to the location that they had selected on the first day they descended Mount Ararat decades before.

After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years; and he died.

After the flood the life span of humankind, except for Noah and his family became a fraction of what it had been before the flood. Shortening man's life was another benefit that God gained, despite His promise never again to destroy neither man nor animal by flood.

ALIVE: Chapter 17 The Empty Ark

Bodiless God watched the winds blow over the face of the waters, and was reminded of the beginning, moments before He called forth light and the moments right after when His view of the earth was of nothing but water and wind. He was mesmerized by the movement of the waves slamming against each other. This time He needed to agitate the sea to cause the waters to evaporate into the air. Meanwhile, sand and soil drank and drank as rapidly as they could. God knew that after such a devastating blow to the biosphere, the earth would need more than wind, it would need regeneration. It was too late to start from scratch; too much had been invested in this planet. After all, what could not be undone was the motion of the earth around the sun, and the moon's rotation around the earth. The universe had been set in motion at least two thousand years before. There was no reason to undo that; besides, God had his precious human creation, and the animals and swarming creatures in the ark to consider. God had destroyed creation as much as He thought prudent.

Several months after the rain stopped, when land in high places showed its face, the process of regeneration began. God sent out seeds and planted trees here and there as He did in the beginning. Nothing drastic; just a small spark of new life that the earth needed, and only enough for it to kick-start the proliferation of vegetation. God only called forth enough trees and plants to support life for the few living creatures and His children. There was no great announcement about it as in the beginning. It was just one of many unnoticed interventions that our creative involved and loving Father, God performs every day of every year.

While gazing at the violent ocean, God remembered back in His infinite memory, the garden that He had prepared for the man and the woman. The lovely green grassy garden in Eden that contained the powerful tree of life and the deadly tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God allowed that garden with both of its trees trees to vanish in the flood. Someday, He thought, humankind would discover these trees and Eden again, but not as a place on earth. It was too late for that.

Nostalgic God's thoughts turned to the evil in men's hearts. How He wanted to destroy that wickedness; so much so that He caused the destruction of all humankind and all creatures except for those in the ark. Forty days and forty nights of rain devastated the earth, but it did not wipe out wickedness and evil from it. Something more was needed. He could not eliminate evil in humankind by welding the violent sword of nature. He saw that now.

It was not because evil was more powerful, or more shrewd. It was because He tried to fight evil with evil. God wondered if it had been a mistake to even try. 'No' He answered Himself. A lot of good had been accomplished in the ark. Noah and his family had in many ways been restored to His image and likeness. Removing all that wickedness was essential to that. Freeing them from the anger, the murderous rancor that pervaded their village eliminated the tendency for Noah's sons to hate back. God wanted to live in a world where no one hated, if only for a moment. His eight people were now pure in their weakness and complete reliance on Him. God loved them, and they loved Him. Besides, humankind would forevermore know the power of God to annihilate what He made, and of the superhuman restraint that He knew would be needed not to do it again.

The gratefulness of the family of man for the olive leaf impressed God. They interpreted the olive leaf as a sign of Mercy knowing that God could have killed them too and worrying every day, that He would. Heaven knows there were reasons, Japheth's murder, Ham's gluttony and stealing, everyone's doubts and fears, their lack of faith and trust, and yet, instead, God protected them and lead them through the devastating flood, and showed them by the olive leaf that the end was near; that the earth was almost ready to host them again. Noah knew that his family deserved destruction and were given renewal. God knew that Noah knew that.

God recognized a power that was more transformative than destruction. The power of His love and His ability to forgive and to be the merciful God humankind needed to survive. Was it possible, thought God, for Him to put down the broad brush He had used to create light and the sky and seas and land, and that He used to destroy all of the inhabitants of the earth, and to pick up a hair-thin tool and work slowly and carefully, and painstakingly to shape the human psyche from the inside, one person at a time, as He had done with Enoch, and Methusalah and Noah?

Noah and Sha-me, Japheth and Coochie, Ham and Aurelia, Shem and Lazaria worshipped God for His mercy and for guiding the ark to its resting place. Their faith and gratitude was worth the devastation of the earth. And yet, there had to be a better way. God knew that He could not go through this again.

God realized that He needed to keep in mind that that though they are made in His image and likeness humans are only flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again (psalm 78). Humankind would test Him over and over again, and provoke Him. But He would have to find a better way, more ways, to be merciful. Had He not been merciful to Cain when he killed his brother, and to Adam and Eve when they violated the one command? God knew that some day He would have to become human to fully comprehend the plight of a creature with the psyche and soul of God, and the vulnerability of flesh. How He despised death when it removed a loving soul from His reach. But first He would do whatever He could to avoid such drastic measures.

THE ARK SCENE

"Father Noah, a full week has passed. Let's send this dove out again." said Lazaria offering her patriarch the dove nested in the palms of her outstretched hands.

"Yes, my dear. It's time." Noah and Lazaria walked to the gathering room, meeting Shem and Japheth along the way.

"Come with us, help father open the window." said Lazaria cheerfully. "We are going to release the dove again!"

The four captives paraded over to the gathering room with the nested dove in Lazaria's hands followed by father Noah in procession.

The day was calm. When the men opened the window, they were surprised to see more earth uncovered. The bright warm sun penetrated the cool dark room with scintillating anticipation of new life.

Sha-me and Aurelia entered and then Ham and Coochie one by one. The warm, luminous, healing sun called each one in from the four corners of the ark where they had been quietly filling the barrel of time to the brim.

The dove did not wait for ceremony, but as soon as it spotted the opening he flew like the wind out of confinement into the new world to explore, wanting never to return to its prison again. His job was done when he had delivered the olive leaf; now he was free to go.

"I am certain that we have seen the last of that bird." said Ham to the others who were all smiling and nodding with envy.

Noah said, "Family, let's prepare for our own departure, but let's not be too impatient, the dove may return. We do not know what it will find."

"Not this time father. I don't believe we will ever see that bird again." replied Aurelia gleefully.

"May we too leave father? It looks good enough for me." begged Coochie with echoes of nodding heads around her.

"No!" replied Noah emphatically to Coochie and the nodding heads. "The Lord has yet to give me permission. Instead, let's remove the covering of the ark."

With a chorus of alrights and okays, all seven followed Noah to the deck stopping to pick up whatever tools they could find to help them with the massive chore of disassembling the roof where they had placed the cisterns that had been dry for weeks.

A WEEK LATER

In Noah's 601st year, in the first month, and on the first day Japheth was the first person to arrive in the gathering room. He stood gazing out the window to see that the land was more expansive than ever before, even much more than the day before. The blazing sun had replaced the wind as the tool God used most to restore the land mass.

'Noah looked and saw that the face of the ground was drying.' "It won't be much longer, my children." Said Noah. "Now we are called to be patient."

The truth was, the family was too weak to argue. They needed the sun to strengthen them before they could start the journey to find places to settle.

Without permission from either God or Noah to disembark each member of the family had to adjust to a new phase of inner struggle. No one knew if it would be a day or another year of confinement in the smelly and loud ever-shrinking boat. The view of the outside world, especially with all the dry land immediately surrounding them and the bright sun by day and clear starry nights made the ark of their refuge feel more and more like a prison. For the first time since they entered the boat a year earlier the ugly sounds of bickering and quarrels further polluted the rancid air.

Ham and Japheth talked to each other about escape, but then started arguing about the details, until the arguments turned into fist fights so violent that Shem had to step in and break it up.

"Look brothers! No one is going anywhere until we are given permission. Now get used to that!" shouted Shem.

"You are just a coward, Shem. What's the threat? All the predator animals are in here, and every one of them is as weak as a kitten."
"God is out there Ham," shouted Shem, "and He wants to be obeyed. Once we get out there too we will need each other, so cease this fighting, and be patient! Ham get out of here; leave me alone!"

"Who are you to tell me what to do Shem! I am so sick of your holier than thou attitude, I could vomit!"

"Well then go vomit Ham; it will do you good, and give the animals something to eat."

Japheth chimed in, "Hey squirt, did you say we should be patient? PATIENT, are you seriously telling us to be patient! I see no reason to stay here, I have been patient enough! What are we waiting for, to starve?!"

"You idiots, both of you," shouted Shem even louder than before, at the same time wondering where he was getting the strength."have you learned nothing all of these months? Do you not remember what it was like to live among all those heathen, that rude, angry, disrespectful clump of humanity. Do you remember how we were relieved to have vicious animals in our midst rather than to have to endure our neighbors? Do you remember why we are here in the first place? God, the same God who forgave our forefathers Adam and even his murderous son Cain, could no longer abide the evil in men's hearts. So much so that He banished them from His world. Do you want Him to regret that He saved you? What is another day or another year of being here when the alternative is to show God that we are as bad as the wicked men He destroyed, and less worthy than ignorant animals?"

"Get out of my face." grumbled Japheth and left the room. Ham walked away too without a word. Noah walked in.

"What's going on here Shem?"

"Nothing, father; less than nothing." It was Shem's habit to diffuse hostility rather than to build on it. "What should we do today to prepare for our departure?"

TWO MONTHS LATER - THE OPEN DOOR

In the second month after the dove had flown away, on the twenty-seven day of the month, three weeks after the fore-mentioned squabble, God spoke.

God said to Noah, "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives. Bring out every living thing that is with you ."

"Hallelujah!" Shouted every son and daughter of Noah."Let's go!"

They all rushed down to the hold on the ground floor where an era of months before Japheth and Ham had barred the door tight with a beam to keep the doomed from barging in. The memories of that day seeped into everyone's mind and from there trickled down to sadden their hearts. Only Lazaria and Coochie showed evidence of it with tears welling up in their eyes. They each wiped the tears quickly away forcing the thoughts and memories of the howling begging people to dissipate as fast as possible.

The beam budged. After a long struggle, it became dislodged. This task would have happened much faster had the men been as strong as they were when they barred it closed. The sense of urgency was not as strong either, nor the fear of possible intruders, now dead.

After much time and struggle, the doors finally opened, the first to be released were the birds whose imprisonment was the most unnatural. Lazaria and Shem had gone to the bird room together while Ham and Japheth worked on the door.

"Dear, dear friends," sang Lazaria to her feathered friends "I have come with good news this morning! Today you leave this wooden chamber and return to your precious sky. Today!" Shem knew that it was not the words that stirred the birds, but the sense of them that made the bird's wings flutter wildly. A mad aerial rush for the door forced Lazaria and Shem to the ground. Shem wondered how they would tell the horses and sheep, lest they be trampled to death.

Noah and Sha-me were the first to exit the ark. The warm sun beat down to warm their thin skin. Hand in hand, they stepped over the wooden threshold and onto a hard rough rock. Neither of them in their hundreds of years had ever seen such a large rock. After braving a few more steady steps away from their lifeboat, they stopped and took a good long look at each other, thin and pale. A warm breeze brushed past them blowing wisps of white hair across their wrinkled faces.

Noah was the first to turn his head away to see the new world. Their old homeland had been flat and woodsy, but this place was in the sky and rocky and barren. It was so foreign and seemed so surreal. Could this be earth, they thought. While they were still getting their bearings the birds rushed through the opening in a mass exodus such as the world had never known. Hundreds of wings small and large and huge fluttered overhead, slicing the air with thousands of motions to catapult themselves through it.

The birds went so far so fast that the sound of them could not be detected by the family on the ground. Noah and Sha-me stood gazing up at the free birds until they were all out of sight soaking in the joy of them to be finally free after so many months, finally in their natural surroundings again. How much worse must have been the ordeal for the birds than for the earthbound creatures. What must it have been like for the birds to exist for over a year of long days and nights in the dark confines of the ark without even the knowledge that someday they would fly the skies again? At that moment Noah realized how their anticipation of freedom and the new world, how knowing the reason for their travails sustained them. Noah wondered if a secret language between God and the birds helped them through the plight of the flood and the prolonged wait that followed.

Back in the ark, Ham and Japheth and their wives were curiously timid. They lingered together inside watching Noah and Sha-me and the birds. Shem and Lazaria were still making their way from the bird room to the door.

"May we come out Father?" said Japheth and Ham in unison.

"Yes, my sons. Fear not, enter into our new world."

The thin ragged young men stepped hesitantly over the weather beaten wooden threshold while their wives held back fearfully, squinting at the bright and strange new world. The intense light hurt their eyes so they could hardly see. Exiting the ark was to them like landing on the moon.

Ham and Japheth walked straight to their parents. The manner in which the young men greeted the hard new world was like chicks birthing themselves out of their tight eggshell. They fought to be released, but once out were unsure of the next step.

"Where is the soil to grow our food!! cried Ham horrified at the massive rock under their feet and all around them. The bright sun and great distance blinded the men to the rich fertile valley below.

"Come out my daughters," urged Sha-me, "come and look at our new world with us." She watched as Coochie, then Aurelia very slowly and carefully stepped over the threshold and onto the hard rock.

"Oh my!" exclaimed Aurelia looking all around her at the majesty of the mountaintop surveying the earth below.

"What is this?!" echoed Coochie.

Japheth answered, "Don't you remember, when we used to till the soil back home, and we would find small rocks that we tossed aside? These are gigantic versions of the same substance."

"What are we to do with this? How will we grow our food!" said Coochie alarmed.

Noah stepped in to allay their fears. "This is only where the ark landed, my dear. We will not stay in this place. We must journey down this mountain. The Lord has provided a fertile valley below. For now, He has set the ark on a most stable surface, above the waters where we have been resting whilst the waters were receding. This is why we had to wait so long, the waters were far below us. Be at peace my child. The Lord will not forsake us."

Coochie looked embarrassed wondering how she could have distrusted the Lord, after all they had been through.

"Before we do another thing, let us give thanks." added Noah.

THE FIRST PRAYER

Before being asked Lazaria, who had just arrived with Shem, began her hallelujah chant and all of the young men and ladies with their mother Sha-me joined in while Noah bellowed for God to hear, "Not to us O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. For you have delivered our souls from death, our eyes from tears, our feet from stumbling that we may walk before You in a new land of the living. What shall we return to the Lord for all His bounty to us? Let us lift up the cup of salvation and rejoice in the name of the Lord. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His steadfast love endures forever! Praise the Lord for He is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting. Praise the Lord sun and moon; praise Him all you shining stars! Praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens..." Thus Noah continued for over an hour extolling the Lord for His goodness and faithfulness, for His mercy and providence, alternately speaking directly to Him and to his family.

While Noah prayed, and His children chanted, Sha-me and her son's and daughters looked up wishing that they could see their Provider, if only for an instant, their souls brimming with contentment, gratitude, and adoration.

After, the worship time, when every heart was emptied of its fear, and strengthened by the spirit of hope, and faith, father Noah began to discuss the logistics of emptying the ark and their journey down the mountain.

THE DESCENT

Noah knew that he couldn't just open every door and gate and release all the animals at once, the predators with their victims. Just as they had been carefully installed in the ark, so did they need to be selectively released. There were farm animals useful for plowing and transportation and there was vermin and rodents and reptiles. Noah could plainly see that this new environment would be as impossible to thrive in as the deep seas for some of the creatures, and that they too would need to be transported to better ground. The logistics of disembarking was overwhelming. Without counsel from God, they would have been met with disaster. The sheer weakness of the animals would sometimes make their work easier, sometimes harder.

The first job was to reconnoiter while escorting the first family of animals. The menfolk would go ahead with the mountain goats and explore their surroundings, while the women continued to feed the other animals, disassemble the ark for its wood wherever they could, and pack.

The air was clean and fresh. The warmth of the sun penetrated man and woman, hiker and zookeeper deep into his and her skeleton. Flesh and bones rejoiced together in light and heat.

Descending Mount Ararat was no easy task, but the men were on a mission that neither their hunger nor their weakness could thwart. Noah wondered how they would get back up the mountain, but didn't dare give voice to his concern. In fact silence accompanied the men most of the way. Even random thoughts dared not interfere with their need to concentrate on where to place their feet.

From time to time the men stopped to look around. From the heights of the mountain they saw seas, one day to be known as the Black Sea to their right, and the Caspian Sea to the left, and also in front, the Mediterranean Sea. At a longer nourishment stop halfway down, each brother claimed his land. Japheth being the eldest nestled himself neatly between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Shem said he would go south, farther from the mountain to what would be known in centuries to come as the land of Midian to the east of the Red Sea and west of the Persian Gulf. Ham would travel to the west side of the Red Sea into the land that would come to be known as Egypt and Ethiopia. Having settled that, the men continued down the mountain with renewed enthusiasm and vigor.

THE LANDING

Ham was the first to reach the floor of the valley after the goats which helped them mark the path. He looked around to see a wide and magnificent plain that went on for miles. What a perfect land this turned out to be. Groves of olive trees and fig trees and fertile farmland greeted the men to their delight.

Japheth was the first to site the massive fresh water lake. They ran over to it far behind the goats and drank and splashed to their hearts content. Not even a duck could have been happier. Certainly God had provided everything for His people.

After the best night's sleep they had had in over a year, the menfolk, strengthened and refreshed, headed back up Ararat to fetch their wives and other animals.

THE RETURN

Climbing back up the mountain was not as difficult as they expected it to be. Most of the goats followed them. They stopped from time to time to catch their breath and let their hearts slow down, but the joy of the good news they were bringing with them seemed to catapult their bodies as well as their spirits.

The men arrived to find the women ready. They had already released as many creatures and swarming things they could. The reptiles, arachnids, and little flying bugs had all been released. Dogs and cats ran around the camp merrily chasing each other.

Most of the animals would be fine, but Noah was concerned about how they would get the cows and bison, horses and giraffe, down the mountain. There was really nothing they could do, but release them one family at a time and watch to see if they got in trouble.

Sha-me reported that their larder was just about empty. Noah replied, "Let's pray and ask the Lord what we should do, for He gives us everything we need,."

NEW FOOD

At the next worship service Noah spoke to the Lord, "Father, we see the rich valley below you gave in store for us, but our nuts and dried fruit are gone. What shall we eat?" Everyone sat in silence, waiting for the reply.

Simultaneously man and woman alike received the answer, but no one wanted to say it aloud, lest the answer shock everyone else. Finally, Ham blurted out. "We must kill certain animals and eat them."

The women gasped loudly, but they each knew Ham was right, because that is what they too had heard in their hearts.

Never before that moment, even in the days of evil and wickedness had mankind eaten an animal. Never. They had taken their eggs, and taken their mother's milk when it seemed that both were in abundance and could be replenished easily enough, but of their flesh, no, never.

But these were not ordinary times. The whole world was new and different. Nut trees would need years to bear, as would the new fruit trees. Even eggs and milk were scarce as the animals were malnourished and not producing. They had no choice.

The women refused to have anything to do with killing, but they agreed out of necessity that they would force themselves to eat the meat.

The men seemed to know instinctively which animals would be good for food. The men had no desire to kill, not after all they had been through and all the death that they witnessed, and knowing that these very animals were their brothers in the storm. It seemed unthinkable that they should want to harm an animal in any way.

Yet, this was not a killing out of malice or anger; it was a sacrificial killing. The men sacrificed their own repulsion over killing the animal out of obedience to God and physical need. A necessity. The animals would, albeit involuntarily, give their lives for the survival of humankind. Men would take their lives from them for their own survival. These men, having cared for their animals so well, having gone through death and baptism together, indeed felt that they were as sacrificing their own lives through the animals, so that they themselves could live. This was a stunning and altogether unexpected situation.

It occurred to Lazaria that this sacrifice would make the animal, whether it be a chicken or a sweet little lamb, once eaten, a part of her being. She thought that in a sense the animal would continue to live in her own body and in her blood, to become part of her. She thought that by eating the animal she could elevate it to a height of existence that the animal could never reach on its own. Such a thought helped Lazaria to commit this act, this cannibal act of eating an animal. Lazaria shared this thought with her family, Aurelia responded with a hug. Sha-me smiled.

Outside, with the ark of their salvation in the background, Noah took wood from the ark and lit a fire. There Noah, the first man ever to do so since the beginning of time, built an altar to the Lord. He took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and he shed its blood, and offered burnt offerings on the altar of wood and fire.

Everyone watched in silence and prayer. As awful as this moment was, it was also holy. Aurelia, Japheth, Coochie, Shem, each man and woman knew that this was the right thing to do. For many reasons, for their physical survival and for their spiritual witness and offering, they knew that offering these animals to the Lord as a burnt offering gave them psychological wisdom and physical strength. As they watched the animals' flesh cooking on the fire, they identified with the animal; it was as if man and woman lay on that fire too as a sacrifice to the Lord. The cooking animal said to each person in his or her heart, "I give of myself, inasmuch as this flesh will be part of me soon." And then something quite unexpected occurred.

When the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, for indeed, to everyone's surprise the burnt flesh gave a delicious aroma, the Lord said aloud for everyone to hear, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every creature as I have done. As long as the earth endures, and seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and nights, shall not cease." The incense of burning flesh spoke to the Lord, all that churned in the hearts of Noah's family.

The Lord saw the humility of the birds and animals of burnt offering, and the need for this violent act because He had cursed the ground for His anger at humankind, and He realized that the innocent cycle of nature, and the innocent animals should never again bear such a terrible burden of punishment for the evil that lay in men's hearts.

The family sat around the campfire, made from wood of the ark, that was an altar to the Lord and ate their meat in tears and silence. Not since the beginning of time had there been such a sacred and sorrowful meal. When they were finished their bellies were full and their hearts were full. The family had been humbled in a way that to their astonishment topped the year in the ark. The death of the innocents, even of nature, illuminated their unworthiness, and consequently their sense of the majesty of mercy.

Genesis 9

Genesis 9:1-17 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority.

Every living creature will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything. However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it. I will require the life of every animal and every man for your life and your blood. I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His image.

But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.” Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, “Understand that I am confirming My covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. I confirm My covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by the waters of a flood; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: I have placed My bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature. The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all the living creatures on earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have confirmed between Me and every creature on earth.”

MEAT EATERS MOVE OUT

The family remained somber and sorrowful after the animal sacrifice and the first meal of meat. It was hard to look at their animals with the same joyful husbandry, however, as the days went by, the pain receded, and the nourishment that the chickens and goats provided became common place and soon it became welcome.

The parade of animals down Mount Ararat continued for over a week. There was much to do. A camp was set up in the rich fertile valley. The womenfolk soon made a home out of it where everyone still lived together. While the men trekked up and down the mountain with a new family of animals every day. The work built their muscles and the protein from the meat helped too, so that by the time the ark was empty Noah and his family were transformed into strong, tanned, muscular men and women.

With every trip more and more wood was brought down to build new homes and more fires, until the day when Mount Ararat was topped by only the footprint of the ark of their salvation. The rapidly diminished bank of wood was being used to build a new life on earth.

ALIVE Chapter 16 - Stopped

The ark wandered aimlessly for 150 days.

The tenth month of being in the ark was not much different than the second month or the seventh. The 40th-day celebration not only marked the end of the rains, a very joyous event, but the beginning of a protracted time at sea. With neither a date of arrival, nor an end in sight Noah and his family had to adjust their minds and hearts to accept a monotonous present. For all they knew, they would be hostage in the ark for years. God had told Noah about the 40 days, but said nothing about how much longer they would have to live in the smelly congested houseboat. It seemed impossible that the earth could ever absorb the bottomless ocean they were floating on. What they needed was steady, unswerving faith. The kind of blind but hearty faith that comes without any encouragement at all, for no one knew what to expect except more drifting around the oceanic earth. In these days God never spoke, not even to Noah.

Nevertheless every morning at sunrise the family gathered to talk and chant to God, hoping that their melodious voices would draw His attention and He would tell them what to expect. After prayer and worship-time, they did their chores, cooked and cleaned, and tended the animals. The routine was vital to their mental health and to the stability of their community.

Every night the skies were illuminated by millions of stars and one bright moon that changed its shape from round to crescent to help them mark time. The beautiful skies that replaced the 40 days of thick clouds was a gift that helped the family endure the long months after the rains ended. Japheth was the time keeper; every morning he placed his hash mark on the wall and every evening he drew the shape of the moon.

Following the party of the fortieth day, the food rations were cut so that they only ate a little once a day, just enough to keep them alive. After the party, they stopped the fourth and sixth day fasts because there was so little eating that to skip a day seemed suicidal, and the last thing any of them wanted was to court death. Even the animals grew bony and lethargic. Besides, the fast had accomplished its purpose of helping to transform each of them into children of God. Contrary to normal human relations, these eight persons never fought or bickered with each other. Was it because they were too weak to argue, or that it seemed too futile? Or was it because God has gifted them with the spirit of peace, to compensate them for all the physical and emotional suffering He knew they would have to endure. The phrase, 'they were in this boat together' probably started on the ark. I imagine Noah being the first to say that to his family to remind them that the miserable conditions, the growing poverty as they used up their resources, and everything each of them felt and thought, the fright, the loneliness, the despair and boredom was shared alike by all.

All of the animals and all of the people were somber with an emptiness that all the water in the world could not fill. The boredom was so heavy that even the blazing sunshine could only lift their spirits a meter high and only for a few moments every now and then.

During those hollow weeks God drifted away from the ark. We know this because in Genesis 8 we read that He came back from wherever He went. It says, “God ‘remembered’ Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated; and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.”

The ark rested on Ararat in the seventh month.

Without warning there was a thunderous sound of the wood of the ark clashing with rock. Man and beast alike fell to the ground and sat there in fear, waiting for the imagined break into the floor to open the way for the entire ocean to enter their home, their world, and swallow it up. In reality the landing was fairly smooth and without trauma, as if the entire ark found its docking station and clipped itself in.

“We stopped!” exclaimed Japheth to make sure that everyone knew the obvious, as if they couldn’t know unless Japheth told them.

“I know,” replied Coochie who had fallen by his side. She stood up and dusted herself off and then gave Japheth a big hug saying, “Isn’t this terrific!”

Soon everyone, from wherever they were and from whatever they had been doing to pass the dull time, scurried up to the deck to see what happened, and saw nothing. The ark was perched on something, but they could not see what. All they saw for miles and miles around was ocean, but something was different. They were not moving.

“It’s windy up here; I’m cold.” said Aurelia shivering with teeth clicking rapidly “Can we go inside now? We have seen enough.”

“Of course my dear,” replied Noah. “Come family.”

Everyone descended to the dark gathering room. The window hadn't been opened for a very long time as the blowing cold winds were not at all welcome. Nevertheless, without the ability to see that they were still, and even though waves were incessantly hitting the sides and jarring the ark, they could sense that they were no longer traveling.

The new sensation of stillness was odd. Despite the slamming waves that shook the ark, it continued to remain firmly in place.

“Let’s sit in a circle.” suggested Lazaria who took Shem’s hand and sat on the floor cross-legged. Sha-me walked over to Noah and took his hand and together they sat down next to Lazaria. Soon the circle was complete.

Hand in hand, feeling the subtle vibrations of one another the family sat quietly with each pair of eyes sometimes open, sometimes closed, rhythmically alternating sips of light and darkness, and of visual and inner contemplation making a moving picture of humanity absorbing the new sensation of being in a fixed location. This sense of location, so new and fresh was appreciated as man had never before and never since appreciated being fixed in place. No one even wanted to get up and walk, or yet cared to know where (s)he was. An hour, maybe two hours passed in pure inactivity and quiet contemplation.

Ham was the first to pull himself up to his feet. “I hear the cows calling to be milked. Aurelia, come gather the eggs.”

“Alright, Ham.” She replied softly, hating to break the silence. 'How Ham loved his eggs' she thought to herself.

In ones and twos the family soon resumed their normal activities, and within a week they were all accustomed to the stationary ark, however, the wind that was causing the waters to subside continued to blow hard. The still ark enveloped by winds and choppy seas presented the family with yet another weird and threatening environment. Going on deck to survey the scene was not for the especially slight, lest the wind scoop him or her up and throw him or her into the sea. The women learned fast to stay below. The men were forced out of necessity to bring down fresh water from the rapidly diminishing cisterns.

The three brothers started to enjoy being together away from the others to talk about their plans for the future. They would certainly go their separate ways hoping to find enough land to divide for each family. They wondered when the land would be arable enough to farm. They wondered about the condition of the seeds they had brought on board.They also had to divide the animals. After being in such close quarters for so long, the whole concept of dividing was equally frightening and welcome. With the same enthusiasm that they had to build the ark, each brother wanted to plan what needed to be done to begin life anew on the earth. Homes needed to be built, or carved out of caves, gardens planted. But first they needed to find food for the animals that they needed to help them. Horses for traveling, the cows and chickens needed to be strengthened as their production had fallen way off. There was so much to be done once they landed, whenever that would be. Yet, there were so many unknowns about what they would find, it was difficult to make plans. How would they all get down from this mountain, and how far would they have to travel to find flatlands? The brothers were brimming questions, but also with hope and anticipation.

In the tenth month mountaintops appear.

After three long monotonous months, the stability eventually grew old too. The waters were being absorbed so slowly, and the winds so fierce that rarely did anyone venture on deck, and the window was never opened in a futile attempt to retain whatever heat they could muster inside the ark. Change was so gradual that no one was immediately aware of the growing appearance of land beneath them, or the appearance of other mountaintops.

When the first mountaintop was spotted in the distance (by Shem) everyone else became self-appointed watchmen stealing away to the deck for a quick look around. As it turned out the ark had landed on a wide and flat area, obviously designed by God for this purpose. It wasn’t long before they noticed that there was a growing ring of earth beneath them. But more exciting was the evolving skyline. More and more mountaintops soon popped up here and there. Every morning presented the family with a brand new view and a spectacular sunrise. The brothers worried that land suitable for farming or ranching could be a long journey away.

For the following five months, morning, noon and night the chatter was only about the future. The women who surprisingly did not conceive during the entire ordeal on the ark were ready to bear children, many many children would be needed to begin the world again.

40 days after spotting other mountains Noah sent out a raven.

“What are you doing here father?” asked Lazaria who was visiting the birds when Noah came in.

“I am looking for a raven. Do you know where they are?”

“Yes, of course father.” she replied and led him there. A raven flew over and perched on her shoulder. Lazaria looked at Noah and smiled proudly with her sparkling green eyes.

“Excellent,” said Noah. You two come with me.” He led them out of the bird room and into the gathering room, the raven glued to Lazaria's shoulder. When they arrived, they were greeted by Sha-me and Shem. With Shem's help Noah opened the window. Lazaria and the raven watched quietly. As the window slowly opened, because of the force of the wind and Noah's diminished strength, a fresh and fragrant breeze rushed in to envelope the humans. Faces looked away in protection, but the fresh air smelled divine.

Noah reached over to Lazaria’s shoulder and held out his arm. The raven instinctively fluttered over. Then Noah extended his raven-laden arm out the window and said, “Mr. Raven go and find us some land. The raven flew away. Noah and Lazaria watched until the bird was only a speck of black in the distance.

“I wonder what he will find.” said Lazaria wistfully while Noah and Shem closed the window.

At that moment Ham and Japheth walked in. “There you are father, we have been looking for you. Do you suppose there is a way we can pull some water from the sea into the cisterns? We are getting mighty low.” Listening to themselves ask for water sounded absurd, but the truth was that they found themselves surrounded by ocean in the distance with very little in their reach as the waters were rapidly subsiding. The menfolk had a real puzzle on their hands. The narrow strip of land surrounding the ark created a barrier between them and the water they needed.

After the men went off to solve their new engineering challenge, Sha-me went to see if the cows or goats had any more milk to give her family. Lazaria stayed and tidied up the gathering room. She thought more about the raven and where he had gone. How she longed to follow him. That evening while the family was gathered for their meager supper, they talked about why the raven had not returned.

"It probably froze to death." said Ham.

"Like we may soon." added Coochie.

It was true; the family noticed a rapid decrease in temperature since they landed. The window stay closed all the time. Inside everyone had on nearly every article of clothing they owned to try to stay warm. Even hands were wrapped in cloth. The fingers and toes, especially of the women were excruciatingly painful. Noah and his sons rigged up an indoor fire pit to keep them warm. Fortunately there was plenty of dung they could use for fuel, but controlling the fire and removing the smoke were the biggest challenges. They could no longer empty the latrine into the sea because of the narrow ring of land that surrounded them, so they left it inside.

The anticipation of leaving the ark was mounting to a frenzied level. How they wanted to be out of this prolonged confinement. It had been so much longer than anyone expected. And so much more difficult. Only Sha-me and sometimes Noah felt nostalgic with thoughts of losing the closeness of their family.

Seven nights had gone by and still no sign of the raven's return. Throughout each day someone ventured up on deck to look around for new mountains and the raven, finding one, but not the other.

One afternoon Lazaria approached Noah in his compartment and asked, "Father, why don't you send out this dove?" Lazaria held out a pure white dove that nested in the palm of her hands. "I know he will return if he can." she added with a smile of assurance.

"Alright my dear, let's give him a try." replied Noah and he got up and lead them to the gathering room window. Japheth and Ham were also in the room and watched while Noah opened the window. The dove immediately flew out of Lazaria's hand as if in a desperate escape.

The winds weren't so harsh that day so they left the window open to air out the room.

The family went about their work, some hopeful, some doubtful that the dove would return.

At the end of the day, while gathered at the supper table, the dove surprised them all when it flew in through the window with a fresh olive leaf in his beak.

"I knew he would come back to me!" exclaimed Lazaria gleefully.

"Hallelujah!" shouted everyone else in unison.

"Look, it has something something in his beak! What is it?" asked Aurelia.

The dove landed on Lazaria's shoulder as if to present her with his gift. She reached up and took the dove in her hands and then pulled out the gift.

"It looks like a leaf from an olive tree!" announced Lazaria.

"I wonder where on earth an olive tree could have grown?" said Aurelia.

"Or survived the flood," added Shem.

"The Lord is merciful." stated Noah. "He has heard our cries, and is showing us that the end is near."

"It has been so long since we had any olive oil for light." said Sha-me.

"Or for food," added Ham.

Sha-me echoed Noah when she said, "Kyrie *Eleison, the Lord's mercy is great and He is greatly to be praised. [*elei is the Greek word for olive. Eleison meaning mercy, also means olive. Mercy and olive leaf are interchangeable because of this moment in history when the dove showed them God's mercy with an olive leaf.] Forevermore the olive oil will be a symbol of God's light arising out of deep darkness to be merciful to us who sit in desperation and want. This dove has given us hope. This dove was sent back to us from our God with the message that life will return to our land. One little olive leaf, just one little olive leaf has shown us that our relief is nigh. God, who sees our suffering is giving us mercy and hope."

The family rejoiced again that evening, perhaps not to the degree of the 40th day celebration because of their severe weakness. After all, they had been in the ark seven times forty days. The ark had taken them from the depths of evil and wickedness to the heights of spiritual unity with their God and maker back down to the very brink of physical life. Each man and his wife were holding on to breath and heartbeat by a thin red thread.

"Please, may we get out now father and see if we can find that olive tree?" begged Shem.

"No!" replied Noah surprised to hear himself say that so forcefully.

"Why not?!" cried Coochie sobbing.

"Patience family. If the dove could have found a place to nest he would have not come back."

"But the raven didn't return father!" begged Coochie.

"Besides," responded Noah, "the Lord has not given me the sign yet. We must trust Him. Let us wait for the waters to subside even more. Please keep in mind my children, that when we leave, it will be forever and perhaps harsher conditions than we are experiencing in here will confront us. Let us spend one more week, one holy week, seven days, in prayer and preparation for our departure from this ark of our salvation. Sha-me, My dear, let us take inventory of all the food we have left. We will need some when we get out."

Ham said, "I can tell you now that it isn't very much father. I will help you mother."

ALIVE: Chapter 15 - The Second Sabbath

Everyone including the recently resurrected Lazaria rushed to the rooftop of the ark to look around at the crystal clear air that surrounded them. One after the other lifted the palms of his and her hands above their heads and waited for raindrops to fall on them, but not a droplet was to be felt. It was hard to grasp that they could stand outside and not be pelted with rain. Coochie thought that she was dreaming. Lazaria was speechless. Sha-me was thrilled. It stopped raining. It actually stopped raining. Surely, thought Ham, it will start again soon. Aurelia, read his mind and said, "No Ham, father told us that it would only rain for forty days. Look around, there is nothing but ocean as far as our eyes can see." Japheth added, "What else is there for the rain to do? It has already swallowed everything and everyone we knew."

Any of you readers who has been at sea in an ocean liner can recall the scene of an oceanic earth. Only this boat had no destination. It wandered aimlessly pushed by the wind and pulled by the moon's waves. There was no land on the entire planet where a two or four legged mammal or reptile, or even an insect could go to run or smell the roses, or eat the roses. There were no roses. Just ocean, ark, animals, and nine Persons, including God, in the whole universe.

"Let's celebrate!" exclaimed Sha-me.

"Time to get my bucket of wine! Now where did I hide that thing?" said Noah with a mischievous grin.

"I know!" said Ham.

"How do you know?" replied Noah bruskly. "There had better be some left."

"There is plenty left father. I'll get it." Ham scurried away to avoid any further interrogation with Noah at his heels.

Lazaria chimed in,"Shem, can we make music? I mean with instruments?"

"Sure darling, I started to make a drum a while back. I don't think it would take much to finish it. Japheth, come and help me. I think we could even knock out a flute. Let's try. How about if we plan for the party time to begin at sunset?"

Shem and Japheth went off to make musical instruments.

The ladies went to clean up the great room and decide what foods to prepare. There was still some dried fruit and nuts, but they had to be careful thought Sha-me because they didn't have any idea of how long the food had to last. Aurelia went to the hen room to check for fresh eggs.

Noah followed Ham to the stash of wine and was relieved to see that Ham had not found his hiding place. Ham must have discovered someone else's hiding place. Perhaps Japheth's. Noah sipped the wine and told Ham to take it to the gathering room, then went to fetch his own better vintage.

Ham chuckled when he saw his father come into the room with another bucket. After setting down their spirits the men remembered to go tend the animals stalls and feed them. Noah told Ham to select a few of the cutest ones to come and celebrate with them. The little newborn lamb was sure to be one, and there were several friendly small dogs and cats.

"Ham, wash up our party-animals, while I go to the gathering room and repair the window to stay open." ordered Noah.

"Okay father." replied Ham while playing tug-a-rope with a spaniel.

Miraculously, by sunset everyone was ready. The table was strewn with delicacies. Lazaria, Shem and Japheth entered the gathering room ceremoniously with Lazaria chanting in the lead and her musical accompaniments following in lock step.

Behind the band and singer marched in Ham with his sparkling clean and sweet-smelling menagerie. The little animals were obviously joyous too, prancing and pawing at each other. If an animal could ever smile, these surely did that day. The family all felt a New Year's Eve type thrill of blissful wonderment.

With repetitive strokes of cheer the family was erasing from their minds the days of fasting, the horror of the dead and dying, the grief of abandoning their friends and family. All hearts faced forward wrapped in hope and optimism. Solidarity with each other made each man and woman feel as if he or she too experienced Lazaria's resurrection.

God looked upon His joyful family and saw a thin motley crew, but He knew that they were stronger within than ever before. Stronger than any human had ever been. He was proud of them, each and every one of them made God proud to be called his and her Father. God too wanted to forget the early scenes of the dead and dying. God witnessed the carnage much more than anyone else and it troubled Him, but now was the time to put all that aside. He even wanted to forget the death of Lazaria which troubled Him more than any other death; it was a reminder to Him that no matter how much He loved the human, the curse of death would not could not, at least not yet, be undone.

God wanted to contribute to the festivities, so He gave the family a spectacularly stunning and luminous sunset, with a full moon on the other side of the sky. He blew away all the clouds, opening the heavens to a million stars that filled the evening sky with light for their party. Then God tapped Noah to be the first to notice. Noah casually caste his eyes over his shoulder through the window and stopped in utter amazement at the beauty of the evening sky. When at last he calmed down enough to speak, he pointed up and said, "Look!"

Eight faces looked up at the blazing sunset and gasped in unison. Their faces blossomed into big smiles knowing Who painted the sky for them. No one had experienced such sheer joy before.

After admiring the sunset, everyone at the party resumed their chatter; they had fun playing with the little animals and danced as they never danced before to rhythms pounded out by Ham on the drums, with Japheth on the flute. Shem's accentuated the rhythm with his new high-pitched hollow sticks. Playing the sticks did not prevent Shem from wondering about the coincidence of Lazaria's resurrection with the end of the 40 days of rain. He knew that everything God does is meaningful and purposeful. It was a puzzle that he wanted to solve.

God knew that Shem would not be able to solve this riddle because he could not see the day millennia in the future when Christ would ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, as His mother thus rode into Bethlehem the day before He was born into this world. A secret, quiet procession followed by a loud public one, yet both on the back of a lowly donkey. Shem could not know about the foreshadowing of victory, the small entrance, that this 40th day, this minor resurrection represented for humankind. He could not know that the darkest days of humanity, even the darkest days for God Himself lay ahead.

Shem continued to wonder and marvel. He wondered that, if God was one of them, one of the nine of them, as his father said He was, then Shem wondered if God felt the pain of separation, of the death of Lazaria. Did God weep for her too? Shem believed that he felt dead without Lazaria, and he wondered if God felt dead too when Lazaria stopped chanting her alleluias forever? Shem pondered these things without conclusion while hammering out his rhythm on the sticks.

How tragic is the death of even one beloved person? Shem knew that someday each person had to die. After all, that was the curse on Adam and Eve that could not be undone, until someone, perhaps it would have to be God himself, opened the path to the Tree of Life.

He sensed that the lesson of the ark was not that they would never die, but unity with God, the creator and with each other, loving God as they loved each other, with patience and care, forgiveness when needed, gave the humans a power to come back from death, to overcome death, just as Lazaria demonstrated to them. It was a lesson he hoped never to forget no matter how long he lived after the ark experience. 'How God must have suffered when Lazaria left us,' thought Shem.

Shem's thoughts of Lazaria's death turned to death itself. What really died, once and for all time thought Shem was the world with all of those angry people doing whatever they could to prevail and exploit each other. That is what died, thought Shem, because it never really lived. Those people didn't understand life because they didn't understand God. They were so much like the animals that had to die. The purification period that they went through during the past forty days was not an end in itself but contributed to their ability to see clearly, to comprehend the mystery of resurrection of life in God. Every evil person died, but because Lazaria was full of love and self sacrifice, she could be resurrected, even from the death of her body.

Shem was sure that had they eaten and caroused as they did in the days before entering the ark, they would not have been capable of uniting with God as they did. He remembered when he, like Ham, was focused on physical pleasure. How could an animal experience the ecstasy of the realization of the power of God within it? How could an animal, so different from a human comprehend the possibility of immortality?

ALIVE: Chapter 14 Collapsed and Powerful

For Shem the raindrops beating on the ark were the tears of God almighty, crying with him over the death of Lazaria. Shem struggled to accept that she would never hug him again or sing to him. He still slept beside her tightly wrapped body. Sha-me and Aurelia made up a bed for him in a separate place and begged him to start sleeping there on it. He refused. Surprisingly, her body did not smell bad as other dead bodies that reeked after time, so there was no reason to leave her alone during those long dark nights in the ark. If anything, he thought he smelled a faint fragrance of lilies-of-the-valley whenever he first entered the room. How he loved it when she nested her lovely blonde head in the cleft of his shoulder and held his chest with her soft arm as they slept. Now it was his turn to cover her with his strong muscular arm. Touch.

God looked down upon His earth covered with water and thought about the second day of creation when He made the sky and separated the waters below the sky from the waters above it. God had not known such a watery scene since then which was before He made the mountains and deserts, and before He made the sun and moon, and before He made creatures and humankind. On that second day, as on this day, there was only light and water, water and light everywhere.

On this day, the Neanderthals were dead and gone, the dinosaurs were gone too because they were too big and dangerous to come into the ark, and there were no more sea monsters either because the turbulent waters overwhelmed them at God's request. Never again would the sons and daughters of God marry the sons and daughters of men. There would forevermore be one kind of human. On this thirty-seventh day of the ark when God gazed upon the watery earth and sky He could no longer see the great and regal trees, nor the majestic mountaintops, nor any moving form of life, for everything God made that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings, everything on dry land in whose nostrils was breath had died.

The fortieth day was drawing near. God was ready to close the fountains of the deep and restrain the windows of the heavens. He was ready to send a mighty wind to blow over the earth to cause the waters to subside.

Before the rains began God wanted to annihilate all life except Noah and his arkful, but now that it was accomplished He was not content. God had witnessed death and destruction on a scale that repulsed Him. He was the God of birth and creativity. Surprisingly His repulsion over the parasite of evil had been diminished by His repulsion over this holocaust. God could not endure the scene and drifted away from time to time. But that is not why He didn't answer Noah's prayer for the life of Lazaria. He heard it.

So stunned and grieved were Noah and his family that it skewed their sense of who God was and their worship of Him. They were accustomed to being the favored children on which the spotlight of His care and protection rested. They expected God to enthusiastically grant their every wish, like a servant or even like a slave. He needed them to know Him in a different way, as a Father, not as a magician.

On the fourth morning after the death of Lazaria, at the prayer gathering the angel of the Lord filled Noah's soul again. This time in the presence of his family.

"Oh dear family, in my grief I have neglected to tell you what an angel of the Lord conveyed to me before Lazaria died. However, now I am not sure what to think of the message."

"Father, tell us." cried Shem who was desperate for any words of wisdom that could dull the pain of his grief.

Noah cleared his throat and tried to compose his message.

"Before Lazaria died....and even now, because I sense that though her body is lifeless, her spirit is very much alive, we were not eight living persons in this ark. Our God made us in His image and likeness, our intelligence, our language skills, our creativity, our emotions all reflect His Being. Therefore we are nine living persons and only nine persons alive in all of the heavens and earth. To be nine is significant. To be nine means to be able to multiply ourselves in others so that they too are gods. We nine are recreating humanity born and comprised of divinity. This nine-ness of us shall forevermore describe to humanity, to those who want to know, what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God, what it means to be baptized and born anew, to rise above the filth of a fallen world as the waters have elevated our souls as well as our bodies."

All curious and confused eyes were focused on Noah.

He continued, "God is sending us to a new world of our making. We are to multiply ourselves, not just by having children, as I hope you will, but to procreate our reborn godly image throughout the world. To be one of nine, as each of us is, including God, means that we have a very special characteristic. We nine can multiply any other number and maintain our identity as nine when that number is collapsed. We can be both ourselves, as the number multiplied, and godly - the nine-ness of us as together and individually."

Noah went on to demonstrate this axiom by multiplying nine by various numbers, and succeeded in fascinating his family who slowly came to understand the meaning of his words. The message was simply that not only was God with them, but He was in them as they were in each other.

Sha-me exclaimed, "That is wonderful Noah, truly wonderful."

"Father Noah," said Shem, "Show us God the Father."

Noah paused to think, and then sensed that he would be given the response without thinking. He replied, "Because we nine are united as we are, "I am in our Father and God, and the Father is in me. The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does His works." Even Noah was astonished to hear himself say that, but continued,

"Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Truly I tell you, the one who believes this will also do the works that we ask of God and in fact, will do greater works than you can imagine because God is in you and in me as we nine are in each other reflecting God's image and likeness. The Nine of us shall forevermore be a divine number to mean the unity of Creator and human."

Aurelia added, "If God is in us, then shouldn't we have the power to answer our own prayers?"

Coochie instantly picked up where Aurelia was going and added, "So, when we begged God to heal Lazaria, perhaps He didn't want to be treated as an outsider, as another Person severed and apart from each of us, as if we are all severed and apart from each other."

What a startling revelation that was. Everyone gasped. Wide eyed.

Shem burst forth, "Is it possible that we had the ability, with God in us, to heal Lazaria, and God wants us to realize that? If God is our life giver, and He resides in us, as we reside in each other making up the nine together, then perhaps we could also raise Lazaria from the dead!"

Suddenly their grief was turned to hope, and faith welled up in each heart in a crescendo of joy and power.

"Come, let us go to Lazaria now and wake her up to life!" said Coochie.

En masse the family scurried over to Lazaria's space where she lay still in her cocoon of furry animal skins.

When all had arrive, they circled Lazaria's still body.

Noah spoke.

"Father I thank you for having heard me, I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the others standing here, so they may believe that you are in me and in them, and that you have multiplied yourself in us." When Noah said this he cried in a loud voice, "Lazaria come out!" The dead woman moved. They watched stunned as the tightly wrapped form wiggled. Yet under the layer of skins her hands and feet were also bound in strips and her face wrapped in a cloth.

Shem said to them "Quick! Let's us unbind her, and let her go." Shem leaped over to her and began to unwrap the skins and bandages.

Japheth and Ham also jumped in to help Shem unwrap Lazaria. Everyone else looked on in awe. God looked on in joy.

When she was free Lazaria never looked so lovely and pristine. She raised her blue eyes up and said, "God is the resurrection and the life, those who believe in God, even though they die will live, and everyone who lives and believes in God will never die."

Sha-me approached her daughter and was the first to hug her with a great motherhug, while tears of joy streamed down her eyes. Lazaria too was crying, as were Coochie and Aurelia and Shem as they all clustered together for a group hug full of exhilaration.

Noah was stunned to see the powerful effect of what he assumed to be a mind game, a benign number theory.

God smiled, happy to be vindicated for His unresponsiveness, and happy to see Lazaria's cheeks grow pink again.

Coochie was anxious to ask Lazaria what it felt like to be dead, but didn't want to cut into the bliss of the moment.

"Do you hear that?!" blurted Ham not wanting to deviate from the miracle they just witnessed, but unable to contain his own fabulous revelation.

"No Ham," replied Noah. "I hear nothing, what is it?"

Ham responded, "That's exactly it! We hear nothing! It has stopped raining! Hallelujah!" The forty days of rain are over. It is finished and the new world awaits us. We are ready." Even the animals were hushed by the sudden ceasing of the pounding rain.

Moments of silence for confirmation was followed by cheers. This moment with the miracle of Lazaria's resurrection being followed by the end of the rain was too powerful even for a round of Lazaria's alleluia-chant. The family stood in silence with their heads bowed in awe. Some of them holding hands, others just touching the body of brother or sister.

Indeed each man and woman felt as if he or she was a new creation, all vestiges of the evil and wicked world were gone from their memories, washed away by the deadly waters of the baptism. They had been given a second birth, the birth as children of God in the womb of a large wooden ark.

ALIVE: Chapter 13 - The Last Week of Rain

Noah rushed out of his cozy maze to see what Shem wanted. As soon as Shem glimpsed his father coming toward him, he rushed off with Noah following close behind. Shem lead Noah into the lambs den where a ewe had just given birth to a little pure white lamb. The newborn was still weak and wet. The shock came because no one expected it. Shem thought they had been careful to avoid pregnancies, but this ewe must have come into the ark pregnant. Lazaria was already there having assisted with the birth. Lazaria was smiling and glowing at the beauty of this new little lamb whose mother was still licking it all over to clean off the layer of mucus. The newborn tried to stand but its folded legs collapsed beneath him a time or two until he finally straightened them out and wobbled around his mother sniffing her while she licked him.

Many of the other lambs and goats and cows looked on in curiosity. They were not accustomed to so many people being in their room at once. Soon Ham and Aurelia entered, "There you are father! We have been looking all over for you. What is going on here?"

Noah looked up at his son and proudly answered,"Look! We have a new resident!"

"Great!" exclaimed Ham noticing the baby lamb for the first time and then the swollen mother-tits, "Milk!" Ham's big blue eyes sparkled with glee.

Aurelia smacked him on the arm and responded, "Ham! Stop that! The milk is for the baby."

Watching the newborn, Ham and Aurelia were in awe of the instincts of this little lamb, that it knew how to stand and walk, and how it related to its mother. Then Ham said, "Should we feed the mother more? She must be exhausted."

"That's a good idea, maybe your best yet. Go fetch some more grain."

Soon Japheth and Sha-me arrived to see what the commotion was all about. The family stood around gazing at the mother and infant while the other animals lost interest and wandered away.

"Lazaria, let's sing something to welcome this new one into our world." said Aurelia.

The rain was still falling hard, so hard that the pounding of it could be felt inside the farm animal room. From the openings on the side of the ark that let light and fresh air in for the animals Japheth noticed that they could no longer see anything but sky, sea and rain, no treetops, no hills or mountains. He wondered if they had all been overtaken by the deluge of rain, or if the ark had drifted over to a flat part of the world, perhaps where there had always been a sea. Japheth was thinking that he was particularly grateful that the air was unusually temperate. He remembered that they started out in the midst of the hot season, but even after all these weeks, which to Japheth felt like a lifetime, the crisp air that he had always known to follow the hot season still hadn't arrived. Japheth stood there thinking pensively while the others harmonized in quick curly strings of syncopated alleluias, composing a new birthday song for the new baby lamb. Aurelia noticed that the other animals had quieted down to listen and perhaps to join their hearts in the sentiments of rejoicing.

Japheth quietly stepped out to resume his chores, and when Ham noticed, he too left with Shem close behind who went to fetch some more water for the mother.
Noah went to the gathering room to look out the bigger window and Sha-me followed him there.

"Noah, how much longer will it rain?" she asked.

Before responding Noah gazed thoughtfully at his lovely wife. Although she was an hundred years younger than he was, making her five hundred years old, her big brown eyes and high cheek bones still made Sha-me pleasant to look upon. Noah loved the way she wore her hair twisted up and fixed with the bones he honed for her, but he liked it even more when she let her silky locks fall free at night before going to bed. Sha-me had been a quiet and faithful wife. Noah felt blessed to have her by his side grateful that she never complained or argued with him even when she was told that she had to leave her brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews behind to die in the floods. Sha-me said good-bye to them in her own calm and sad way, never letting on that she knew what would become of them, knowing that there was no use causing their anguish pre-maturely, or inviting their sarcasm.

Noah shook himself out of his musing to remember her question and replied, "By my calculations less than one more week my dear." Noah sensed that Sha-me was torn in spirit.

It was true. Sha-me had grown accustomed to the discomforts of the ark in the same fashion that she had dealt with the evil and wickedness they left behind; she chose to focus on the positive. Sha-me, perhaps more than the others, was relieved to be rid of the old village with its own set of hardships, with all the gossip flying and petty strife. She was glad to have her children contained and worshipping the Lord together. She was glad to have her daughters, the wives of her sons so near, to get to know them and influence these young women who were little more than children to her and Noah. Sha-me in contemplation realized how blessed and happy she was in the ark. She had even grown accustomed to the water that surrounded them and saw it as a shield to keep them safe from threatening beasts and pests that had plagued them on earth. Sha-me thought she could be content if they stayed in this ark forever. She didn't want to see an end to the closeness they were developing with each other and with God.

"Sha-me, did you hear me? I said that by my calculation it will rain for five more days." shouted Noah to be heard over the rain that started beating on the side of the ark and sprayed through the window. The ocean waves raised and lowered the ark so that Noah and Sha-me had to fix themselves in their seats holding on to whatever they could.

At that moment Coochie walked in carefully but confidently, arms splayed, to compensate for the rocking ship. She had surely gained her sea legs thought Sha-me proud of Coochie for adapting so well. "Did you see the newborn lamb! Wasn't he adorable!" She exclaimed.

"Yes!" replied Sha-me. "How exciting to have a birth aboard our home."

"Let's hope we don't have many more births." added Noah. "We are crowded enough and we don't know how much longer we will be in this ark."

Coochie, looking a little surprised said, " I thought you said 40 days it would rain; that means the rains should be stopping soon, isn't that so father?"

"Yes Coochie," replied Noah, "but God didn't tell me how long it will take for the earth to absorb all the water and for land to appear that we may have someplace to grow our food."

Coochie had already grown thin and had lost the muscular definition she started with on their journey, but she didn't lose her cheerfulness, nor her naïveté.

"Oh! I see! I never thought of that." replied Coochie pensively.

Coochie walked over to Sha-me and gave her mother a hug. Sha-me said, "Let's not be too anxious to leave this ark of ours. How I will miss you and Japheth when you go off into the world to start your family on your own land."

"Oh, mother, don't say that! We will never leave you!"

"But you will Coochie and you must. Now let's not think about the future. Look how wet you are! Go and change your covering and come back to help me prepare the supper dear."

Lazaria and Shem were the last to leave the baby lamb. After everyone else was gone they sat quietly for a while watching them drink the water Shem brought. Shem noticed that Lazaria seemed particularly lethargic and quiet, but didn't say anything. They rose to leave at the same time as if speaking to each other subconsciously. When Lazaria stood up, she felt a little dizzy. Shem held her arm to steady her and they walked hand in hand until they reached the ladder. Shem let Lazaria go up first so he could catch her if she fell, but she didn't. When they reached the higher level, Lazaria announced that she wanted to rest. Perhaps, she said, that the excitement of the birth was too much for her. Shem walked with her to their space and tried to make her comfortable, piling skins on top to keep her warm and dry. When he was sure she was resting peacefully Shem went to look for his father.

He found his parents and Coochie in the gathering room. "Father," said Shem "I am afraid that my beloved Lazaria is ill. What can we do?"

Noah replied without hesitation, "We will ask the Lord to come down and rest His mighty hand on her and heal her. Come son, fret not. God can do all things if only we ask and believe."

Shem closed his eyes to shut out the world and to look deep within where he might sense the presence of the Spirit of God, and said, "Dear, oh dear God who has delivered Your servants from evil and wickedness, and saved us from the deadly fate of everyone we ever knew, both great and small, come and heal our sweet little songbird, Lazaria. Strengthen her Lord that she may serve You and love You as Your loving and faithful child." His prayer helped Shem to feel confident that he was heard and that indeed Lazaria would be well.

"She will be fine Shem. You will see; the Lord heard your plea and surely He has already healed. Shall I go check in on her?" asked Sha-me.

"No, mother. She is resting now. We will let her sleep. What should I do? Do you need any help father?"

Noah perceived that Shem was still worried for his wife. He needed to think of something difficult for him to do to keep him from surrendering to anxiety. "Shem, we only have a few days of rain left. Our cisterns are full, but we don't know how long that fresh water will have to last. Can you build more cisterns? Perhaps you can get your brothers to help."
Just then, a big wave slammed the ark while the driving rains continued to dump buckets of water inside the gathering room window.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Coochie. "Now, I'm all wet again and I have nothing dry to change into. Is it any wonder we aren't all sick!" Noah caste a stern look at Coochie who immediately caught her insensitivity and repented saying, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded. Woah, here we go again! " the turbulent sea and driving rain drove everyone to the floor. "Come, let's get out of this room." Shouted Noah. "Shem, do you know where Ham is, let's see if he can help us with that project."

Sha-me and Coochie tried to stand up too. Sha-me felt like the wobbly baby lamb she just saw standing for the very first time. Once they got up, they held hands to create a broader base beneath them from which to balance themselves. Slowly, inch by inch Sha-me and Coochie made their way over to the corridor grateful again for the railings the menfolk had put up at the last minute with leftover tree limbs. "Let's go find Aurelia," shouted Sha-me,"and we will continue to pray for Lazaria together."

By coincidence they spotted Aurelia heading towards them from the end of the long dark corridor. "Aurelia!" exclaimed Coochie, surprised to see her so soon. The three ladies came together holding on to both walls. "What is it Coochie? Hello mother."

"Lazaria is ill. We must help her."

"The Lord loves Lazaria, maybe more than all of us. Let us tell Him that she is ill and He will heal her." responded Aurelia at the news.

"We prayed with Noah, but let's pray again." Said Sha-me anxiously.

The ladies extended their arms around each other forming a circle of love and solidarity that even the rocking ship could not shake loose. Again they reminded God of His love for Lazaria and her beautiful chants and begged Him to heal her.

"Come," said Sha-me, "let's make her some tea and go to her."

The ladies went to the dining room and gathered all they could find to strengthen and comfort their beloved Lazaria, and then headed to her room together. Aurelia, Sha-me, and Coochie were all a little nervous each of them in a cacophony of thoughts teetering between fear and faith over how they would soon find their beloved Lazaria.

Coochie lead the pack through the narrow foyer that lead to her space. Sha-me and Aurelia were close behind armed with their instruments of healing.

In the dim room with only one narrow slit for daylight to enter the ladies saw Lazaria lying very still under layers of skins. Sha-me moved to the front of the group and scurried to her side. She quickly dropped to her knees to get a close look and saw Lazaria's white and lifeless face. Sha-me looked at Coochie and Aurelia in disbelief and then back at Lazaria. She then drew down the covers and found her hand lying on her heart. She took the cold hand in hers and knew then that it was true. All life and breath were gone from their sweet songbird.

Aurelia and Coochie gasped in unison and then also fell to their knees to see for themselves. Sha-me moved back to allow the sisters to behold Lazaria from up close.

Coochie cried aloud and between sobs managed to say to God, "Oh Lord, God why didn't you come to her rescue? Didn't we just moments ago with Noah beg you to heal Lazaria? How is this possible? Why did You linger and let her die?"

Aurelia had no words to say. She simply weeped with tears streaming down from her eyes, for Aurelia had grown to admire Lazaria more and more over the last few weeks. She loved her peacefulness and quiet confidence. She perceived that Lazaria had a very private personal relationship with God that Aurelia wanted to know about, but had never gotten the opportunity to discuss as much as she wanted to. And now it was too late; she would never know. Suddenly Aurelia, as if outside of herself, heard herself beginning to chant the Alleluia and Coochie and Sha-me chimed in through their tears. There was nothing else to be done for her. Sha-me wondered where she was, and where God was. Coochie wondered what Shem would do when he found out.

There the ladies were gathered weeping, and contemplating and chanting and lying still under layers of skins for hours together until darkness swallowed the last ounce of light. They heard the footsteps coming and a call from Shem.

"Mother, where are you?"

Shem entered the room. He was sent by the menfolk who were looking for dinner and wondered where Sha-me and the other wives had gone. He didn't expect to see all four women together in the room. By then the women were no longer weeping so the situation was not obvious to Shem.

"How is she? Lazaria darling, how do you feel?" said Shem quietly. Coochie and Aurelia stepped back to let Shem get close, and Sha-me gave her son a big mother-hug. Her grip told Shem what he didn't want to know.

He looked at her and cried aloud, "Oh God, my God, how could this be?! How could my little bird leave us like this? Where have you taken her Lord?"

Shout as he did, repeat the cry as often as he did, God still did not answer. God was as silent after Lazaria died as He was before.

Coochie and Aurelia signaled to each other to leave and they tiptoed out of the room without being noticed. Sha-me stayed with her son and daughter for a little while longer in case Shem needed to talk. But Shem didn't want to talk; he just wanted to cry.

Even in death Lazaria was radiant. Her skin was smooth and fair, her long wavy blonde locks fell over her small round breasts. Her full lips were slightly open as if she was about to speak. Her eyes too were open and her face looked pleasantly surprised. It was Shem who decided to shut her eyes so she could look as if she were only sleeping.

Soon they heard the footsteps of Noah rushing to the room.

"Coochie told me. How could God have neglected us like this?" Noah said in dismay. No one attempted to answer for God. Noah walked over to his son and knelt beside him. He stroked the lovely forehead of Lazaria and reached down for her still and cold hand and wept. Words could not describe the confluence of thoughts and emotions that swirled in Noah's faithful heart.

Shem broke the dense silence by asking, "Father, what should we do with her body?"

"Let us leave Lazaria here to rest, my son. We cannot toss her out to sea as if she were one of the damned. She was better than that, she was an angel. We will wrap her tightly in the skins and when we land we will plant her in the earth."

Noah and Sha-me helped Shem roll Lazaria tightly in the skins. They planned to get some hemp rope and tie it around the body and leave it to rest right in that cave of a room where she went to regain her strength and health. Shem told his parents that he wanted to stay with beautiful Lazaria that night, but that he would meet them for prayer in the morning.

Respectfully Noah and Sha-me left Shem and Lazaria to be alone together that their spirits may have a chance to commune if ever they could without physical touch.

The darkness had sent each of the other pair of mates to their own beds without supper that night but with enough food for thought to last them for a week. One by one each man and woman silently noticed that the waters had calmed and the ship was sailing smoothly. Sleep came easily.

Sha-me was the first to awaken and remember the tragedy of the previous evening. She rose from her bed knowing how hungry everyone else would be too and began to prepare the morning meal. One by one Noah, Ham and Japheth with their wives gathered to assist her. The room also needed tidying up as the turbulence of the previous day had left it in complete disarray.

Sha-me didn't know whether they should fetch Shem for breakfast or not, but finally decided to save some food for him. Just as they were gathering for the prayer time, Shem emerged looking drained but alive. "I am ready for the prayer time." he said somewhat mechanically.

Coochie ran over and gave Shem a sisterly hug. "Shem, my brother, I am sure God has a reason for this; perhaps He is testing us and we must show that we trust Him by accepting what has happened and still love and worship Him. Can you believe this?" Coochie was a little surprised to hear herself say that. She knew that she wanted to comfort Shem, but wasn't sure what to say. She wondered if God spoke through her.

"I believe," replied Shem, then added, "help me to believe."

ALIVE: Chapter Twelve, Week Four At Sea

Noah's family slowly acclimated to life at sea grateful for some relief from their physical discomforts. Traveling, even in the midst of the torrential downpour, became a new thrill. One by one the family found their sea legs and eventually the vomiting ceased. A continuous supply of fresh air from the sea breeze passing by the briskly moving boat replaced the putrid animal odors that had grown like well-fed monster-spirits in each room of the formerly fixed ark. They could even deposit their effluent into the ever deepening sea to help them keep a cleaner home. The traveling ark left the dead and dying farther and farther behind them. No more did they have to witness small lifeless bodies floating by; the prayer room window presented new and ever changing scenes. Early one morning they were greeted by the striking beauty of swaths of luminous magenta clouds in shades of deep blue sky as the sun rose over the vast oceanic horizon. It was on a similar exquisite morning that Japheth was ready to come clean.

Noah prayed during their fourth prayer gathering at sea, "O Lord God Who has delivered us from wickedness and death, and given us fresh clean air, and Who is taking us around Your world that You have made, having expressed our profound gratitude, we are ready to search deep within for anything we may have done to offend You, our good God." Noah prayed aloud in his daily attempt to purge from his troupe of survivors every vestige of sin, for Noah perceived that there was grave sin in their midst, but he didn't know for sure where it was from, although he suspected it was in Japheth.

During the week following the shock of dislocation and the sailing of the ark Ham sensed that he had changed. It was as if inside his body, he had become a different Ham. He had become softer, less judgmental, less demanding than he had known himself to be. This Ham wanted to speak up that morning in a more heartfelt and serious way than ever before, not just to please his father, but with a fervent need to be acceptable in the site of God.

"Lord God," said Ham, "please forgive me if...when, I have offended You." Then realizing that he needed to be more specific, he added, "I am truly sorry that I thought we were going to die too when the ark separated from the ground. I didn't trust You and I am ashamed of that and sorry." Everyone else nodded as if to join himself or herself to the confession of distrust, even Noah.

Then Coochie spoke up for the first time in a long while during the confession phase saying, "Lord, please forgive me for that too and also for lying with my brother when I was young. I didn't know what he was going to do, but I didn't stop him either. Please forgive me."

A few quiet gasps were swallowed by silence in which Noah's family realized that confession was for the purpose of expelling ALL impurities, no matter how old. There was little difference between what Coochie confessed and a splinter being removed from her skin. As painful as it was, the splinter and the sin had to be removed to prevent a fatal infection.

Perhaps no one was more shocked and upset at Coochie's confession than her husband Japheth. He was suddenly torn between processing in his heart what she confessed, and his own need to come clean. Japheth realized how brave Coochie had been to publicly state her sin so he decided that it was finally time to confess his crime. "Father, brothers and sisters, my mother, and our God, I confess that I killed a man in cold blood who did nothing to harm me, but only caught me stealing."

The many gasps that followed Japheth's confession were louder than those that followed Coochie's revelation. Japheth looked first across the circle at Coochie whose head was bowed to avoid his eyes, and then over at his father whose face did not reveal any shock. He didn't yet dare to look at his mother, but instead lowered his own head and added, "Father, forgive me. I am sorry. Over the years of harboring this crime, it didn't bother me until I entered this ark and we began our prayer gatherings. At first I continued to justify my actions, but in a strange way I gradually came to realize how wrong it was to cover one sin with an even worse one. I was still focused on myself. Then, I shifted to thinking about my victim. At first I tried to recollect every mean or terrible thing I had known him to say or do to convinced myself that he deserved his fate. It was only in the last few days that I came to understand that no man has either right or reason to end the life that God had given to another man. Taking his life was stealing too. It was stealing from the man his most precious possession, and it was stealing from God, our sovereign Lord, His own image and likeness that he imprinted on the man. I have no right to steal from God, even were a man to come to me pleading to be put out of his misery. His life is not even his own to give away or to destroy. May there never be murders in our new world. I am unworthy to be in this ark with you all or even in the new world." Japheth's eyes welled up with tears and his voice grew more and more labored until he couldn't speak another word.

Noah responded, "My son Japheth I am pleased that you came forth today with your crime. A sin repented and confessed is as ashes blowing in the wind. Your golden contrite heart is all that remains in you.. God will not despise that."

His brother Ham walked over to Japheth and hugged him tight for a moment, feeling in his own chest the beating of his brother's pounding remorseful heart. After he released Japheth Ham said, "Japheth, now that you have unburdened yourself from that crime, you are no longer the same man. You, the man who stands before us today, is not the same Japheth who would kill to retain a false reputation. By the way, what did you steal?"

Japheth looked up at his brother in confusion and replied, "What does it matter Ham? If you must know, it was a cloak."

"And where is that cloak now Japheth?"

Becoming exasperated at his brother's questions he replied, "At the bottom of the sea with everything else, what do you think?"

"I was just wondering, don't get mad. I'm sorry. You're right. It doesn't matter and it's over." Then Ham walked back to the space he had vacated in the circle, and wondered to himself why he had been so hard on Japheth.

Sha-me walked over to her son, and wrapped her motherly arms around him in a warm embrace. Coochie approached slowly too and hugged both mother and Japheth together.

The rest were silent, waiting to see what would happen next, who would come forth, but after a few quiet moments and the hugs unfolded no one else was ready to speak up, so Lazaria started to chant her Alleluias quietly; then, one by one the other voices joined hers until the family became a lovely bouquet of praise.

That morning was the beginning of a fast day. When the prayer service ended the family scattered. Japheth and Coochie went together to the rooftop to fetch some water for the animals and to reconnect their unburdened hearts; Shem quietly slipped away to visit the sheep and goats and to contemplate what had occurred. Lazaria went to collect the chicken eggs.

Sha-me came to appreciate the fasting days for on them she didn't have to cook. She could clean more. Sha-me felt instant gratification by transforming a messy space into a tidy one. A clean and tidy room was for Sha-me particularly calming. This morning she worked on the great room where they dined and lounged. When everyone had gone their own ways, the room was left cluttered and in need of her attention. A few hours later, she looked around to take in the effects of the transformation and smiled. Then she went to her own special spot in the ark to a dark corner where after her work was done and she felt calm and accomplished, she could be alone and speak to God.

As the old wicked world sunk deeper and deeper into the past it became easier for Sha-me to keep from thinking about the friends and relatives she left behind to die. She sensed a thrill welling up in her heart with anticipation of the day the ark would land in a new place. She wondered where it would be and how long it would take before they would be able to grow food again. Then it occurred to Sha-me though that when they landed, the family may disperse and each one of her son's would claim his own territory, and have his own fields for planting to feed his family and each young man would become the king of his own country. She and Noah would probably have to travel far and wide to be with their grandchildren. She hoped that Noah would be willing to travel so, after all how could she survive without her children and grandchildren to love and care for? Perhaps, thought Sha-me, that she and Noah could take turns living with each family.
When she considered that her future life could be lonely and isolated, Sha-me found a new appreciation for these days of living in a small crowded space with her children.

Noah left the prayer gathering more disturbed in his spirit than he had been in a long time. He had sensed for a while that Japheth was holding on tight to a secret, but he didn't know how severe it was. It struck him to think that his own son deserved to die for the same reason most of the others did. It was a gift, as if being handed his baby boy all over again to still have Japheth with them, to have his whole family together. These thoughts drew Noah into a sleep state where he dreamt that they were swimming in the sea, but that they could breathe. Japheth swam by him and as he passed Noah a stream of blood followed him. Japheth didn't notice that he was bleeding. Then a school of nine fish passed him too. They were drinking in the trail of blood that Japheth left behind. The fish were of different sizes and shapes. There was a flying fish, and a salmon, a mackerel and three small catfish, a rockfish, a perch, and a flounder. In the wake of the unusual school of various fish, the water became clear and phosphorescent. Noah looked around marveling at the beauty of the scene and at how easy it was for him to breathe under water, and how comfortable the temperature was. When he gradually woke up and gained consciousness, he resisted and closed his eyes in an attempt to fool his body into sleeping more so he could return to that blissful place. It didn't work, no matter how many different ways Noah tried to go back to sleep, he failed.

He finally gave up and lay there in the rapidly moving ark with the loud animals barking and hissing and roaring and purring, hooting and howling and chirping and growling. Determined to go back to that comfortable place under water he tried very hard to remember every detail and to recreate the scene in his conscious mind. Try as he might, it was gone and Noah was stuck with the reality of the moment, which would have been disappointing except that Noah was at that moment visited by a Spirit sent to explain to him a profound concept that God wanted Noah to relay to his family.

Sitting on the floor of a dark corner, a dead end of a maze Noah constructed for himself in the ark, where he could be alone to pray and listen, nap and think, a luminous foggy substance appeared. Noah witnessed this milky spirit approach him. He could see light but there was no form to it. Mesmerized by the light that gradually filled the formerly dark space where he sat to pray and nap, Noah saw a band of spinning energy come toward him and he felt it enter his body. At first he was terribly frightened because this experience had never happened to him before, even when he traveled in his heart and mind to God's throne room. He was paralyzed for a few moments, but then he gradually became accustomed to the sensation and sensed that he needed to relax which he was able to do by counting slowly. The words of the numbers gradually faded into silence and then other words came into his consciousness.

Noah was thinking, but they were not his thoughts, he could tell. They were from the luminous energy that Noah assumed to be an Angel of God who spoke to him, not as a teacher would, but rather as himself, from within, having merged with Noah's own consciousness. Noah gradually yielded to this experience, curious about what it would bring.

'We are eight people in this ark, only eight people alive in the whole entire world,' thought Noah. 'Each of us was created in the image and likeness of God. My sons were made in the image and likeness of me. Shem has my temperament, Japheth has my hair and hands, Ham has my face. Since we all are made in God's image we must be as His sons and daughters. God, the God of my grandfathers Enoch and Methusalah, the God of my father is as real and alive as we are except we cannot see Him. And yet, He has as much of a mind and heart as we have. He is opinionated, He is powerful. I can't even hope to understand Him, but I am in awe of Him.

This must mean that I was wrong when I said we are eight people alone in this world. God is a person too, and He is with us. We are nine. God told Adam and Eve to multiply themselves and fill the earth. But in reality He is multiplying Himself in us.' Noah was thoroughly enjoying where this train of thought was taking him. It seemed to him that this was even more enjoyable than his dream.

'In this ark each of us should be aware of being multiplied by our ninth Person. I wonder if it is like this energy, this angel, this spirit coming into me and thinking these thoughts with me?' Then Noah wondered if that was his thought or the angel's, but then he realized that he would never know and that it didn't matter.

God times me alone; nine times one equals nine. Me multiplied by God equals God, not me. How interesting!' thought Noah and continued.

Let me see. Sha-me and I are two. God, the ninth, times the two of us would equal eighteen. If I collapse that number, 8 + 1 = 9. Together we are in essence God.

To see if that problem was unique, Noah tried that with other numbers. 2 x 6 = 12. 1 + 2 collapses to three. Nope. 4 x 4 = 16 which collapse to 7. 'Oh my! Let's go back to nine,' he thought, or rather the Angel thought with him.

'My three sons times nine equals twenty-seven, which collapsed equals nine.' Noah started getting excited by how consistent that was. 'All eight of them times nine equals 72. 7 + 2 = ...9!'

Then he wondered what it meant to be multiplied? 'That number which multiplies another number incorporates the number into itself. By being multiplied by the ninthness of God, we become in essence, a nine. We become Him who is Spirit, we become Him as a physical person.'

Then Noah wondered why he thought God was the ninth. Shouldn't He be the first, since He was the Prototype for humanity? Maybe that was so, he thought, but that didn't change the concept of nine persons in the ark being somehow magical in how we nine shall multiply ourselves in a clean brand-new world. To think of God as the first would be adding Him, but nine multiplies so each of them incorporates the nine, there is no longer a first or second or third; we become nine together.

Noah wondered if God had given him three sons and their wives for the purpose of revealing to Noah at this moment, the special meaning of being a group of nine. 'In essence,' he thought, 'this is God's new way to show us men what it means to be made in His image and likeness, to become absorbed in Him and He in us as a group, not as individuals.'

Next in the string of mathematical philosophy, Noah was led to consider adding nine to any number and immediately saw that the concept of becoming like their Holy Ninth Person failed miserably. He and Sha-me + God equaled 3 three, not one or nine. The eight of them plus the Ninth person added up to 17, which collapsed to eight, not nine. Adding nine to any number collapses to be the original number. The Nine is lost. It didn't take long for Noah to realize that one could not become like God by adding God to himself or to herself. God is not just another Person, perhaps because He is not material, He can only be incorporated as multiplication does, not added. Then Noah wondered if this was why God told them to multiply and fill the earth, not to add more people. He wanted humankind to continue to multiply Himself on the earth.

Noah knew in his heart that he was only being told something that he instinctively knew all along, that God lived in His children, and not beside them.

Noah was content with these thoughts, and then remembered the nine fish of his dream and smiled to himself. His growing grin reflected the awe Noah felt for God, His brilliance and power, even His fancifulness. Noah wasn't sure how he could explain his new revelation to his family simply, but he thought if he could, perhaps the message would teach humankind their integral relationship with their Creator and Father.

Enthralled by the concept, and as spiritually leader, Noah decided that when he and his family had a special request to make of God, then they would compose a prayer and say it every day for nine days in a row...to remind God that they are imbued with Him. Being multiplied by the Ninth Person in their ark, the new creation of humankind in the image and likeness of God is their way of becoming less the people they were and more the children of God that they wanted to be. It was then that Noah began to see his family as small gods with a large mission.

Noah sensed the luminous energy gradually seeping out from deep within him, while at the same time he perceived that he had changed. The Spirit had left behind a new Noah, a wiser Noah. In the calm still darkness Noah sat stunned by the visitation. The weeks of effort, and high emotion of fasting and praying, of repentance and purification came to rest on the fact that all of this was happening for the salvation of their family, no, for the salvation of humankind.

"Father, father are you down there!"hollered Shem. "Come quick, I want to show you something! Hurry!

ALIVE - Chapter Eleven, Week 3, The Midway

"How long have we been in here Coochie?" asked Aurelia in a slow lethargic manner.

"Truly, I don't know Aurelia. It seems that the rain has washed away time along with everything we ever knew. Come, we will be late for the prayer. I don't want Father Noah to scold us again."

The young ladies hurried to the prayer room. They arrived to find everyone else there. Sha-me, Ham, and Japheth were huddled around the window gazing at the scene outside through sheets of rain. The window was not on the same side as the door so they could not see the small crowd trying to break in, nor did they hear their desperate shouts over the sounds of animals and of rainfall. What brought gasps of shock and sorrow were dead babies and small animals floating on what appeared to be one meter of water and getting deeper by the minute.

"Come," shouted Noah. "The ladies are here now. Get away from the window. Let us not allow our eyes to deceive our hearts."

One by one Sha-me and her sons turned away from the window to face Noah. Noah wondered if he should move their gatherings to another room to avoid the scenes of horror that were going to get worse. He could see the distress on their faces and a few tears. He would have to remember to ask God what he should do or say to protect his family from overwhelming grief.

"Children, Sha-me." began Noah, "Let us be reminded that the Lord God is delivering us from death to love and serve Him." Then, realizing that he had to address their grief head on, he added, "The sins of the fathers were visited on their children. Had the children lived in that wretched world they too would become evil and wicked, for they would have been trained in the ways of their world. God is without time. He sees the future as clearly as we see the present. These infants floating by our window are being spared from that evil world as much as we are. This is not a problem for us to solve. Trust Him. Let us begin with praise. Lazaria, lead us in your Alleluia."

Tears streamed down lady-eyes as the family chanted. Over the course of the last few days their harmony had gotten better and better. The men and ladies composed an Alleluia chant with base, tenor, alto and soprano pitches that seemed to resonate throughout the room somehow masking the loud sounds of animals and the incessant drone of beating rainfall so that all they heard was the worshipful chant of their lonely family.

When the Alleluias died down, Noah asked his small congregation to share moments of thanksgiving that they experienced since the day before.

Ham was the first to speak up, "Father, yesterday on the strict fast day, I didn't become as ravenously hungry as I had last week, and I am grateful for that."

Lazaria reported, "Early this morning a red bird managed to find its way in here through the rooftop stairwell. I led it into the bird room and was filled with joy that it could be saved. What a mighty bird it must be to survive the torrential rains! I hope you are not displeased Father."

"That's fine Lazaria, but no more. I'm sure we cannot host one more being."

Lazaria nodded her head in acceptance. Noah looked around the room for more expressions of gratitude.

Shem raised his hand and said, "I am grateful that my wife and I are in here, but I don't know why I am being saved. I feel so unworthy." Then Shem hung his head low. Noah looked over at Japheth to see if he had anything to add.

Japheth seemed overwhelmed with emotion and speechless. He simply nodded his head to confirm Shem's feeling of unworthiness. Noah did not force him to speak. He simply moved on to the next part. "Who would like to make a confession this morning?" Noah looked around the room and honed in on Japheth who was trying to pull himself together, as closed-mouth as ever. Japheth was not yet ready to confess his crime, but thought that perhaps he should think of something to say as practice.

Noah continued to scan his clan and stopped at Sha-me. Perhaps, he thought, if the matriarch confessed something the youngsters would open up. "Sha-me, do I sense that you have something say?" he asked to elicit a response. Sha-me thought hard and finally said, "Noah, I have questioned God, why He would kill everyone. I confess that even as we prepared for this great and awful day, I never believed it would happen as you said."

Coochie and Aurelia nodded in agreement, the others who felt that way, didn't dare admit it.

Noah accepted the confession without comment for he thought that it wasn't his place to speak for God. He scanned the small room some more and when he had given everyone a chance to bravely step forward, he moved on. "Now that we have come to the Lord with thankfulness and contrition, we are prepared to ask for His favor."

Lazaria was the first to speak again as she blurted out, "Lord, let them know in their hearts why this destruction is happening to them. Let them see how much their actions have offended You, and let them die with sorrow and not with anger. Please Lord, hear my prayer."

Coochie added thinking still about a dead child she saw floating by, "Lord, I pray for my nephew, that he may die in peace, and for my brother. Let him know that I forgive him for his criticism of us."

That supplication was accentuated by more nodding heads.

Ham was quick to add, "Lord, please make sure we have enough to eat, and enough food for the animals too."

Japheth looked over at Ham and snapped, "Ham, you asked that yesterday, and the day before. Do you think God forgot?"

""Shut-up Japheth, I don't remember Father telling us what we could not ask. You think of something else."

Taking the challenge Japheth said, "Lord, help me to become a better man, to be able to hear you speak to me as Father does, and not to be like Ham who only thinks about his stomach!"

Noah stepped in. "Japheth! May I remind you that you are both in this ark together! You will rise and sink as one. Become a better man by realizing that you and your brother must face each other. You must turn your heart for that to happen." Japheth heard his father's words and decided to think about their meaning later.

At that Sha-me beseeched the almighty God to give them peace. "Lord, we are full to the brim with conflicts, with bickering and anger. Please Lord, if you can, instill in our hearts patience and calm. Let us do whatever each, with his own will can to avoid offending the other. Lord, I don't know what makes us want to show ourselves better than our brother or sister, but whatever that is, can You please make it go away so we eight can create a peaceful new world?"

Noah smiled proudly to his wife and added, "Can any of us ask for more?"

It wasn't that they had no supplications that Shem and Aurelia didn't speak up; it was because they wanted to get on with their day. There were animals to feed and washing to be done.

Noah ended the service exalting God as Lord over them and over all of nature, letting Him know that they were grateful to be in the ark, and that indeed they all wanted to evolve into true children of His. They glorified God together saying every nice thing they could think of to say to Him.

Shem was the first to leave the prayer room. On his way out he glanced over at the window and saw a stream of small dead bodies of babies and little furry animals floating by. He averted his eyes away quickly, but the tragic sight had already burrowed itself deep in his soul. Shem headed straight for the farm animal room to feed the lambs, cows, and goats and to clean out their stalls. When he entered the room, the animals were all glad to see him. They walked up close to greet Shem, each voicing their greeting in their own way according to their kind. Shem patted on its head as many as he could reach. He had grown very fond of these animals with a particular fondness for a few of the happier and funnier characters. While the animals were busy feasting on the food Shem brought them, he went about with his cleaning chores.

Shem liked the mindless cleaning work for the opportunity it afforded him to contemplate without interruption. On this morning he reflected on how suddenly the waters ended the lives of so many, how abruptly it ceased their joys and sorrows, their love for each other, especially the babies with their mothers and fathers. To be spared that sudden end of all that he knew and loved was a gift from God. To be alive in the midst of pervasive death united Shem with the source and essence of life as nothing else could. It seemed to him that the deadly rain removed Shem's own alienation from God. This salvation from the waters of death that everyone else on earth suffered somehow purged within Shem his own selfishness, his own hubris. It was as if the waters of death remitted his sin once and for all. He mysteriously felt that God pardoned him from all that he had done to displease Him before this awesome day.

Shem could feel himself changing; he sensed the process by which God was making him into a different person with a new perspective, a gentler person, a more patient person than he had ever been before. He thought about his mother's prayer. 'What was it that made one person want to outshine the other?' He no longer wanted to outshine anyone, he wanted to merge in love with everyone, to be distinct but similar and complementary. Had God answered his mother's prayer? Was he actually losing whatever it was that created in him conflict with others? No longer did Shem care only about himself, but he was beginning to sense a closeness with God and with his family, a unity with them, that he had never experienced before and didn't know was possible. Shem's eyes filled with tears as he wished that those dead infants he saw could have been transformed as he was, instead of being killed. He wished that he had been thus transformed as an infant, instead of after so many years of flailing around as part of such a broken world.

Shem looked forward to sharing what he felt to be his revelations with Lazaria that evening before they fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Lazaria had gone directly to her favorite bird room to check in on the new guest, to make sure the little red bird had been well received by all the others. Coochie entered surprising Lazaria who was accustomed to being alone.

"Is it okay if I come in?" asked Coochie.

"Of course it is." replied Lazaria unconvincingly. "I was just about to sweep, do you want to help?"

"Okay, but can we talk?"

"Sure. What about?"

"I have been thinking about those babies we saw this morning, and about all the others who will soon die. I wonder how they grew so horrid, and how Noah came to be so different from them. Why didn't Noah argue with them as they did with each other, surely he was provoked to fight more than anyone else. What do you think Lazaria? Let me ask, does God talk to you when you are alone?"

Lazaria was surprised by Coochie's visit and her questions. She had to stop to think about how to reply. Fortunately Coochie was silent and patient. "Coochie, take this broom and sweep starting over there in that corner. We will talk later; okay?"

"Sure, Lazaria."

As the young ladies swept the birds flew all around them making it difficult to follow a train of thought without being bombarded by a bluejay or a chickadee. Lazaria knew that she didn't have to think, but only pray to the Lord and He would tell her what to say.

When the ladies finished their sweeping, and fresh worms were strewn around Lazaria and Coochie meandered through the makeshift forest the menfolk had constructed with tree limbs until they reached the door. Lazaria said, "Come, I know a perfect place to talk."

Lazaria led Coochie to the landing beneath the rooftop level where they could breath in the fresh wet air. The rain slapped their faces gently after ricocheting off the partial ceiling that covered the stairwell.

When they settled into their niche Coochie gave Lazaria a look of great anticipation for what she could learn from this quiet solitary sister. Lazaria asked God again what to say.

Finally some words came to her mouth. "Coochie, do you remember Father Noah telling us about the two first people God created?"

"Yes, Lazaria, Adam and Eve."

"They were made to be like God in their intelligence and creativity, in their emotions and in their faces. Humans unlike any animal reflect the face of God, His image. By face I mean they reflect the sight of God Who sees His whole creation from a long wide faraway vantage point as well as from up close to see all the details. With His ears God is able to hear our prayers, and hear how we relate to each other. The face of God and man also houses the tongue of God that discerns bitter and sweet, tough and tender. The face of God and man smells fragrant flowers as well as noxious fumes that harm and kill. With our godly faces we discern tangible good and evil. Our faces link us to the powers of God. But there is another aspect of being human, of our grandparents Adam and Eve that is much less objective and straightforward, less innocent than the senses of our faces. There is an enemy of God and man. This enemy seeks the destruction of God, and consequently the enemy of everyone made in His image, that is all of humanity. This enemy created a barrier that damaged the link between human and God with distrust.

God warned them not to taste of the enemy's fruit. But they disobeyed because they believed the lie that it would make them as wise as God.

"I'm confused." Said Coochie. "Did you not say that they were already like God, couldn't they tell?"

Lazaria replied, "They were poisoned by the enemy in a way that separated them from God. That separation was the death that God warned them would occur. He didn't kill them; they killed themselves by alienating themselves with distrust from Him who is the fountain of life. For these last ten generations God waited for mankind to see for themselves if knowing good and evil would really make them wiser. The problem is that being alienated from God, they stopped caring."

Coochie said, "Oh Lazaria, it really was horrible. Man just became more and more corrupt, more evil."

Lazaria replied, "The image of God in man, the face of God, became disfigured so they could no longer taste or see, or hear without the echoes of self centered distrust obscuring everything."

"What can be done?"

"See the rain fall and the animals and even babies dying all around us."

With tears welling up in her eyes Coochie nodded.

"My dear, God is annihilating the death of separation from Him, with death. By this watery death, God hopes to close the breach, He hopes to reunite us eight people to Himself, to restore our faces to look like His again. We have only to unite ourselves with His life giving power and we will be born anew. Our faces can become purely like His again. Every generation after us will also be able to enter into our baptism to reverse the effects of the enemy's lie."

Hearing herself speak thus Lazaria knew that God was speaking through her, for she had never thought those thoughts before. In fact she thought that once she could be alone again she too could contemplate their meaning.

"Lazaria! Can we un-know good and evil?"

"No, Coochie," Lazaria replied authoritatively, "I am afraid we cannot ignore the knowledge of good and evil, but as God wanted, we should be aware and alert enough to not to eat of its fruit. I mean, we should take our focus off ourselves, and choose to be as trusting of God as possible. That way you and I can let Him take care of good and evil, we aren't letting all those matters into our hearts to disfigure us from His image and likeness."

Coochie thought for a moment and replied, "You mean I don't have to fret about these people drowning all around us, even my little nephew?" Lazaria shot Coochie a peaceful and loving smile, and replied, "Above all things, what is happening to our world is all of God's concern. It is only for us to trust Him and worship Him."

"You should tell the family this tomorrow morning at our prayer time. Do you suppose that father Noah understands this too? "

Lazaria smiled wistfully and replied, "I am certain that father Noah knows this. He has maintained the face of God. That is why he among all of mankind was selected for this grand mission. It is we, Noah's family who are beneficiaries of his faithfulness. Don't you see how lucky we are?!"

"But why us, Lazaria? Do you think God selected each of us?"

"I don't know Coochie and it doesn't matter. Come, let's get out of the rain and help mother Sha-me prepare the evening meal."

The ladies descended the stairs drenched and dripping. As they went to change their clothes, both ladies were mulling over new thoughts as if each young lady in her own way fundamentally changed inwardly and with that scene a stronger bond developed joining them to each other.

Outside the ark pandemonium was taking over. The rains pelted the earth day and night, relentlessly battering everything on it. Never had anyone known such constancy, such fortitude. Neither anger nor hatred nor quest for power could have matched this barrage of water for its ability to destroy unceasingly day after day, week after week. Only Noah and his family knew that the waters would cease falling after forty days. The besieged and beleaguered slowly came to believe that the rains would never end. Gone was their hope that on the next day the sun would shine bright through clear dry skies again. They had nothing to cling to. Hope was washing away with everything they owned and every aspect of their beings. The quest for power was turned inside out. Nothing was left inside, neither thoughts nor dreams nor aspirations. Everyone who could, fled to the mountaintops for whatever days or hours more of air they could steal. Everyone else drowned.

Inside, Noah quietly marked the midway of the days of rain. He too felt weakened physically by the fast days, but mysteriously spiritually-stronger by them too. He allowed the youngsters to tend to the feeding and cleaning while he spent most of his days seeking the Lord's guidance, and planning for the new world. Noah could have never imagined the emptiness he would feel at this time. Whether it was fatigue from the lack of nourishment or a reaction to the stark contrast between the death that surrounded them and the ark teaming with life, Noah felt completely subdued. He wondered how God felt watching the destruction of His creation from above the watery firmament. He knew not what to expect when the rains ceased, but he knew enough not to question that now. In each of his 600 years on earth Noah came to trust God more and more, not depending on earthly sights and sounds, but rather interpreting everything through a different lens that God had gradually given him over the years. In the midst of his contemplating Noah felt a sudden jarring of the boat.

He heard Aurelia scream, "Father Noah come quick, we are moving! Help!!! Are we too going to drown? Help; help!! Everyone rushed to the prayer room. Creaking sounds resounded throughout the ark. The brothers who were working together looked at each other and their father as if to say, "What did we do wrong? Will this building of ours hold up?" Everyone, even Noah, had panic smeared all over their faces. The women sobbed begging God for forgiveness and mercy.

Each of the eight hearts and minds screamed silently, but in unison something to the effect of, 'We aren't spared after-all. Now we will know how all the doomed people were feeling these weeks. Lord, I don't want to die, please save me! I promise to be better!'

The truth is that the ark was simply lifting off the ground to begin its floating journey. Everything was just as God had planned it. The ark was well built and there was no danger to the inhabitants. The buoyancy of the heavy boat along with the undertow of the deepening waters loosed and then freed the boat from its wooden crutches. Their fear was infectious though, even affecting Noah, but it was foundless. Within an hour the ark was well on its way around the world being tugged to and fro by the magnetism of the moon and its own rotation around the stable sun leaving behind the place of Noah's birth, the land of his fathers and forefathers back to Adam and Eve. Gone were the sights of people desperately climbing mountains, of dead babies and small children floating face down. Gone was everything Noah and his family ever knew of life, save for their relationship with each other and their faith in the invisible God.

The loosened ark started moving more and more quickly in search of the ocean for which it was built. The rains were still pouring down heavily causing it to rise higher and higher, especially when the ark reached the deep turbulent ocean.

Japheth, Coochie, Sha-me, and Ham vomited all over the prayer room. Aurelia and Lazeria started to clean it up, but the stench was overwhelming and they fled to the rooftop for fresh air. Noah and Shem had gone to check on the animals who were howling as never before.

"Lazeria" shouted Noah from the bottom deck. "Lazeria where are you, come down here!"

It was strange because Lazeria knew it would have been impossible to hear Noah call her with the sounds of animals as loud as they were, but she did hear Noah call and told Aurelia to come with her and see what he wanted.

When the ladies arrived at the bottom deck they found most of the wildest animals howling and growling. Noah shouted to Lazaria and Aurelia to start chanting as loud as they could.

The melody and particularly the harmony of sound from the two ladies with Noah and Shem chanting an octave lower gradually soothed the frightened beasts. It didn't slow down the rocking back and forth of the ship, but suddenly deep in their souls man and beast were transported far back to their mother's wombs where in the beginning they were formed amidst similar rocking motions to and from with the steps of their busy mothers. From the very first moments of consciousness until the day of birth when suddenly the stationary earth replaced the rocking womb and with it their sense of balance man and beast existed in a moving environment similar to the rocking ark when it lifted off solid ground and floated on the oceanic earth.

Thus Noah, Shem, Lazaria and Aurelia spent the first long dark night at sea with the large beasts on the floor of their house turned boat. At sunrise the quartet ventured upstairs to find out how the rest of the troupe had faired. They went to the prayer room and thanked God that the room had a window to diffuse the stench of vomit that lingered there.

There they found Sha-me, Coochie, Ham and Japheth awake and cleaning the room to prepare it for the prayer service.

Sha-me rushed up to Noah weeping, "Where have you been?! We were so worried about you, but we just couldn't walk around this awful ark to look for you. Oh, Noah, this is horrible! How can we survive! I am so afraid."

Noah hugged his wife tightly in silence, soothing her with the beat of his heart and the stability of his muscular arms. When he felt her racing heart slow down, Noah said, "My dear, the large animals were as fearful as you and needed our help. Lazaria and Aurelia, Shem and I were down there soothing them all night. We will be fine. If this boat did not break apart last night, it never will. Be at peace. We have left the horrors of the dead and dying behind us. Let us praise the Lord with full and grateful hearts lest our fear offend Him who is delivering us from evil."
Sha-me reduced her fear to tears and simply wept in Noah's comforting embrace. When finally she calmed down Noah released himself and gathered his small clan.

"Come children, thank you for cleaning. Let us pour out our full and heavy hearts to our Lord."

Everyone came together each couple holding hands to stabilize themselves. Without asking permission they sat in a large circle on the floor on pelts they had laid in piles. There was no chattering this morning as was usually the case. A rare quiet surrounded Noah as he listened deep within his heart for the message that he was to relay from the Lord God to the survivors of last night's launching.

He began, "My children, this is the midway point of the forty days of rain that the Lord is sending to wash this earth of the filth of evil and wickedness, to return to the beginning of creation when there was only water. Know that through our fasting and prayer we have been preparing for this time. Let the weakness and fatigue of your bodies yield spiritual alertness. With the same determination with which you controlled your appetite, God asks you to control your emotions. Fear and doubt will weaken you. These unique days require strength. Strength and faith.

Let us refrain from looking back, neither for those we left behind, nor at our struggles to master ourselves. Now is the time to begin to look forward to the second half of our forty days for the culmination of the rain that will herald a new life for us. I remind you that we are the remnants of humankind. Our faith and fortitude will form the foundation for generations that come after us."

Noah paused to allow God's message to penetrate their minds and hearts.

"In these days we are being asked to sacrifice our old selves. What appears so devastating to our psyches now will grow into new and beautiful lives of gratitude and wonder. As a seed planted deep within the cold dark soil must die before it can sprout and blossom into a flower or even a mighty tree, so must these deadly days become days of sprouting of new life in us who are the seeds of a purified world.

I ask you to accept your suffering, even your natural fears, as the condition through which you will grow into a resurrected world. Follow God who leads us there. He sees us, keeps us safe, and knows where we are going. Allow Him to comfort you in your heart, open a path through the fear and discomfort of these days, through the hunger and the stench, open a path to your golden hearts where the Lord will rest in you. Realize that He too suffers the destruction of His creation. Let's be sad for our God whose will was for the life and happiness of humanity to companion Him.

Refreshed and reassured let us proceed to the second half of our journey with vigor and enthusiasm for what lies ahead. "

With that message as his homily Noah proceeded to ask for expressions of contrition, thanksgiving and supplication. This morning's doxology was clearly the most heartfelt this gradually unifying troupe had ever expressed.

ALIVE: Chapter Ten, Gestation

Every birth requires a gestation period. It was no less true for the rebirth of each member of Noah's family. The day after their first spiritual gathering and for every day after that the family was summoned at sunrise by Noah to worship the Creator God. Without church or synagogue, without rabbi, priest or pastor, without the Bible, the Torah or the Creed, without Jesus, Sha-me and her children were in the process of growing the seed of salvation into new persons. God was the Father and the womb of the wooden ark was the mother.

Looking back, this second week may have been the saddest of them all for it was the week that outside of the ark all of humankind and perhaps the wildlife too tottered between hope and despair.

The five year old son of Coochie's brother cried, "Papa, when will the water stop falling from the sky?"

"I can't tell you my child." He replied sympathetically, "I neither know how it started, nor when it will end. We must wait and hope it stops soon." The boy climbed into his father's lap. The shelter of cave was less and less a refuge as the ground grew more and more saturated with water. The fearful father wrapped his arms around his small son wondering if he should take his family to the ark where his sister went, but decided he wasn't ready to face her after all the ridicule he flung at her and her crazy husband. His wife put a stop to his musing when she entered the cave with a few carrots in her hand.

"This was all I could find." she sighed, "I'm afraid that food is scarce. How I long to be able to start a fire! I'm so cold."

"Thank you wife. Come, sit by us; I will keep you warm."

On the top of a faraway cliff a stream of frantic men and women were jumping to their deaths. A cacophony of screams shot up from the deep and could be heard for miles around. So many days of steady rainfall with no end in sight, and the dark cloudy skies were more than the suicidal could stand. These were the panicking men and women who were strong enough to scale the slippery mountain. Their busted and bloody bodies littered the rocky floor below. Heavy rains washed the dead bodies clean and sent streams of polluted water into the bulging river south of the valley of the dead.

No one had a taste for murder any more, so great was the wet violence from above. The days of thievery had ended too. No one cared a whit for material possessions. There was nothing to lie about, and only the most lascivious still tried to eek out a feeling of physical pleasure from fornication. Old lovers grew to despise each other's bodies. Evil and wickedness were widely being conquered by water and the devastating circumstances that accompanied non-stop rain.

All that remained of the God-damned world were fear and anger. Coochie's brother's scene was common in families with young children to protect. Most, if not all parents and grandparents clung together to comfort the children and lift each other from despair. The most optimistic still believed the rains would end and they did everything they could to conjure up a sense of normalcy and hope that there would be a bright and dry future.

Noah's brothers, sisters, and cousins, who were also grandchildren of Methuselah and Enoch, prayed for relief. They came together with those who knew there was a God and that He caused the rain and could make it end. They begged God to save them and the earth from the deluge of water. They reminded Him of the innocent suffering animals. Those inclined to crying balled like hungry babies. These were the virgins of this original day of reckoning who were caught without oil in their lamps, those who said to God, "But Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your Name? To whom He answered with silence, "I never knew you." Before the rains came, they knew of God, but never made the effort to worship and obey. Their desperate and pathetic cries dissolved in wet air.

Inside the ark, the first fast day as proclaimed by Noah was difficult for other reasons. Instead of empty hope Noah's family had empty stomachs. Instead of begging for salvation of their flesh, they were fighting their flesh for the benefit of their souls. Lazaria had been hungry before, but not in the presence of baskets of nuts and raisins. To deny her stomach was harder than she imagined it would be. She had to keep reminding herself that God, through Noah, asked her to fast for a good reason. As a stone thrown into a pond sends out concentric circles, so did her growling stomach send out rings of weakness and emptiness. As she sat alone in the bird-room contemplating reasons for her fast, a voice spoke to her. It said, "Say to your stomach, 'My food is to do the will of God.' Lazaria, you need a strong faithful will more than you need food. Sing your alleluias child, subdue your flesh." Gradually Lazaria's weakness turned to meekness as she chanted her alleluias in a soprano voice softly, thinking only of her desire to please Noah and his God.

Fasting was not so pure and simple for Ham. He had always been a strong-willed and irreverent boy. With piercing blue eyes, a square jaw, and straight black hair, Ham was the most handsome man of the family even though he was no taller than his short father. Yet this situation was enough adventure for him, and Ham wanted to do whatever he could to prepare himself for the new world. Ham understood the practical reason for fasting, to conserve their food. So on this first day he found ways to keep busy. The ark that seemed so large when he was building it, felt uncomfortably confining. After the morning prayer-gathering Ham walked from one end to the other back and forth, over and over, up and down from deck to deck starting at the top where he got drenched and noticed that the cisterns were already spilling over. On the bottom level he stopped to milk the cows and goats. Ham tried to explain to the animals who came to him to be fed as they had done every day before why they would not eat that day. After delivering the milk to the ladies for cheese-making, he continued his rounds. The only room Ham would not enter was the dry store room where the food was kept. The temptation was too great for him. In the afternoon Ham took a long nap. Mostly he thought and dreamed about what he would eat the next morning.

Ham's wife, Aurelia, and Coochie grew closer than sisters. They both had left sisters behind and leaned on each other to fill the void, the one looking at the other as in a mirror searching for the familiar and for approval. The two young ladies had known each other for as long as they could remember but they had been too busy gathering and cooking, cleaning and sewing to play together. Both were still not much older than children. Since humans lived for centuries, commitment to marriage was typically reserved for the second century of life at the earliest. To marry young men in their thirties was unheard of. When they told their parents that they were going to marry the sons of Noah, both sets of parents were astonished. Coochie's father tried to forbid the marriage. But Coochie was particularly strong-willed and referred to Lazaria and Aurelia who were also young girls. Coochie promised to avoid having children until she was much older so her father conceded, knowing that he was no match for his strong willed daughter. Aurelia, simply said goodbye to her surprised mother and father and walked away from her home without an argument on the day she entered the ark with Ham. Aurelia came from a family of twenty-five children and was not missed.

Both Coochie and Aurelia had smooth swarthy skin and long wavy brown hair and they were both devoted to their young husbands because Ham and Japheth were different than the other men, especially the older men who pursued them. They admired Lazaria for her beautiful voice, but Lazaria seemed to prefer to be alone over their company. They didn't really understand Noah's talk about a God, and they were both afraid of how their adventure was turning out. They missed their families and had no idea of the finality of it all, the complete and total destruction of the world. They talked to each other about why God would kill everyone but them, in fact they couldn't believe it when their husbands told them, so they played along, sure that it wasn't true. But now that it had been raining for so long, they were less sure.

After a week of confinement in the ark Aurelia panicked, she became claustrophobic and wanted to break out. In fact, Ham caught Aurelia trying to lift the locking bar. He pulled her away and she screamed that she couldn't breath and wanted to get out. Ham held her tight until she stopped crying and then took her up to the roof where they sat in the rain until Aurelia was ready to go beneath and get dry.

In her quiet times, while laying in bed waiting for sleep to come Aurelia became most anxious. She had to fight with herself to believe that she and Ham would make it through the rains and that they would live again in a new world. It seemed like such a preposterous situation. Aurelia had never seen a boat so she didn't believe that a house could float on top of water. Yet, Noah told them that God promised him that indeed they would survive, so she had to believe or die. There was no other choice. She couldn't see herself waiting for death every minute of the day. Even the people outside in the rain didn't yet believe that they would die. Aurelia realized in those wakeful hours that she needed to change her mind. She had to start thinking differently. If her thoughts represented who she was as a person, she in fact had to become a different person. So she simply begged God to please help her to believe in Him and in His plan, and to help her fast and pray as Noah did. Night after night this same scenario ran through her mind until sleep took over.

The morning prayer gatherings seemed to calm the fears of the young ladies, but they didn't know why or how. The first fasting day was particularly difficult for these two young friends because they complained of their hunger to each other which made it worse. But they also kept each other from cheating on this first day. Fear of what Noah would do if he found out was more threatening to them than starvation. If Noah's God could make it rain on all those innocent people, they thought, imagine what He would do to them if they disobeyed.

Japheth had a secret that he had been keeping from his father and brothers for three years. He killed a man in cold blood. When he thought back on it, Japheth was convinced that this murder was for the right reason. The man caught him stealing and would have told his father. Japheth believed that if he just did away with the man, his father would never find out. Japheth wondered if he too deserved to be outside the ark with the other violent men. Then he asked himself what the difference was between his murder of one man and God killing everyone? Besides, he thought, if he had to do it all over again he would.

Every day and night people tried to enter the ark. At first it was women who politely knocked and yelled for admittance. The proud independent menfolk mostly tried to construct their own make-shift shelters, not yet knowing that they needed a boat. These initial, relatively polite, visitors could barely be heard by the ark's residents because the rooms they inhabited in were far from the door and many loud animals lay between the family and those who were entreating to come in. One by one the women eventually realized that no one would open the door so she would walk away to search for other shelter.

When he was formed in his mother's womb, God had written on Shem's genes the same poem He had written when He formed Noah, and Lamech and Methuselah before him. Shem loved God with every fiber of his being. Shem prayed without ceasing. When he would awaken in the night words of awe and praise immediately came to his mind without Shem stopping to think. He seemed to know instinctively that God was watching over him and guided his steps. Several times in his young life Shem had been delivered from destruction. One such time a lion cub wandered into the village and pounced on him. Shem wrestled with the lion and found strength he didn't know he had. Lying on the ground with the lion on top of him, a rock rolled into his hand and with all his might Shem hit the lion between the eyes and knocked him out. Shem crawled out from under the angry cub and hit him over and over again until the cub's heart stopped beating. It was from that experience that Shem understood what a dangerous world he lived in and how much he needed protection from above. God guided Shem in and out of danger enough times to teach him about good and evil. Long gone were the days that God wanted to shield his children from the knowledge of good and evil. Now it was a matter of showing them the difference and allowing them to choose. Shem was a kind boy who thrived on praise from his father. He remembered the moment when he first realized that Noah's God was his God too.

Shem and Noah, prayed together often when Ham and Japheth were busy hunting or carousing with the other young men in the village. Noah taught Shem to tell God what was on his mind and to ask Him for favors. What Shem wanted most of all was to have known his great grandfather Enoch. Although death was rare in those days of five to nine hundred year life spans, Shem had known men and women who died. When he learned that there was a man, even in his own family who simply went to God without ever knowing death Shem wanted to know how that happened and where he went, and what his relationship with God was like. So to speak with Enoch was Shem's prayer. Every night before he fell asleep Shem asked God for the ability to meet Enoch and speak with him. This prayer became a ritual for Shem that lulled him to sleep year after year. One night, in his twelfth year, Shem had a dream in which grandfather Enoch spoke to him. Enoch told his young grandson that he should be patient and that all would be revealed to him in time, but he wanted Shem to know that God had indeed heard his prayer. Shem awoke with this vision still clear in his mind. It was then that he knew without a shadow of a doubt that God was real and heard his prayers. That was the moment Shem realized beyond a shadow of doubt that the God of his fathers was his God too.

When Noah told his sons to find wives for themselves, Shem knew instantly that he wanted Lazaria to be by his side for the rest of his life. Convincing her was not so easy. They were both very young, much too young for marriage and children. Lovely Lazaria with her angelic voice was accustomed to fending off wanton older men. Shem knew that he couldn't use the same forceful tactics of the older men's style. He simply befriended her. One day when Lazaria strolled by the site where the ark was being built, she approached Shem and asked what he was doing. Shem seized the opportunity to put his tools down and take a break. He walked her over to a nearby tree where they sat and Shem explained to her everything his father had taught him about the Creator God, and about good and evil. Lazaria was fascinated. She had always sensed an invisible guiding presence, but had no idea that it was real. The concept of invisibility carried her off to a whole new world of thought. After that first visit, Lazaria came around often and brought food for Shem. In the evenings they went for long walks getting to know each other, their hopes and fears. It wasn't until the ark was near completion that Shem asked Lazaria to marry him and to enter the ark with his family. By then Lazaria was enthusiastic about making the ultimate commitment to Shem and to his God. The day the family entered the ark was their wedding day.

Sha-me tried hard to interpret the sounds of her growling stomach as love-songs to God. Every time she was tempted to sneak into the storeroom and grab a handful of nuts, it was if an invisible wall stopped her. She knew that the wall was her will and she was relieved to discover that at her core her need to obey her husband and His God was stronger than her need to eat. That was because she believed that obedience to the fasting rule in the end was the safest and easiest way to survive the enormous power of death that surrounded her. Sha-me fought thoughts of food by thanking God for saving her life, and the lives of her three sons. She did not think that she was better or holier than all of the people who would soon drown. Sha-me loved life after all. She loved her husband for his uniqueness and his wisdom, and she looked forward to the day when her son's wives would bring forth babies to care for and to fill her days with laughter.

Noah's passion for the new age, to live in a world purged of evil and wickedness propelled him through the rainy skies higher and higher until in his heart and mind he reached the throne room of God. There he would sit unaware of time conversing with his Maker. There Noah stood in an infinitely deep baby-blue light-filled space, in total peace and comfort and in awe of God's power and majesty. Noah knew he would not be allowed to stay there. He had to return to his body in the ark for most of the long wet days and nights managing his crew, but he savored every moment of ecstasy. He never could make it happen on his own. It seemed that God had to invite him to that place, which he did often during those months in the ark.

God trusted Noah; He trusted Noah not to question His devastating decision. He trusted Noah to lead his family into righteousness, who in most ways were not better than the damned. For God, Noah was the link between the world that had recklessly fled from His will in the beginning, and a brand new world where His aspirations for humanity could have a fresh start. This Great Primal Lenten period would be crucial for human transformation. Never before had He been willing to nurture man through a process of repentance. With only seven souls to work with, and with faithful Noah in the lead, God had great expectations for the restoration of His world. God wanted to know if metamorphosis could be as satisfying to Him, and even more effective than creation. Noah wanted to know if his family could ever experience God as he did.

ALIVE: Chapter Nine - Week Two in the Ark

Above a thick layer of light grey clouds the sun appeared to mark the seventh day of the first week of steady rainfall. Neither the villagers, nor the sequestered family had seen the bright round sun for many days, and yet day and night still managed to filter through miles of foggy white sky. It wasn't just the rain that tormented the people outside the ark, it was also the strange white sky that hid both sun and moon. The eerie cloudiness made children and old men cry. Teardrops and raindrops together fell upon the soaked ground and burrowed themselves deep beneath roots and rocks.

Having just awoken from a dream Noah hurriedly dressed and shouted to stir his family. In his dream God told Noah to prepare his family for their own death and rebirth, that the long hard days of physical preparation for the flood were behind them. This forty day journey was to be a period of inner transformation. God told Noah that He would instruct his family through him. Noah was anxious to get started. He too was weary of their fear and complaints.

A short while later the clan gathered in what came to be known as the meeting room. It was one of the few rooms in the ark with a window. This morning the rains were falling so hard and fast that Noah had to speak very loudly to be heard, but he chose this room to contrast for them their sheltered safety with the havoc on the other side of the wooden walls.

Noah pounded his rocky mallet on the makeshift table to get the chatty group's attention. When all that could be heard was the rain and roosters he began to speak with a deep powerful tone of voice that even his own wife did not recognize. "Sha-me, my sons and daughters, let us not waste our energy in fear, for we have been set apart from this doomed world. We are safe. The hateful world we once knew will soon be gone, and only we will exist."

Shem looked over at Ham and his mother both of whose eyes were fixed on Noah's face. Japheth and his wife were cuddled together, her head laying in the cleft of his shoulder, her eyes closed. Shem wondered if Coochie was listening intently or snoozing. His mind wandered from Coochie to her brother and the other young men he grew up with, how they helped him to work his fields and hunt. He wondered what they were doing at that moment. Shem knew that he had to stop thinking about the past. It was no use. God did not ask his permission to wipe out all of humanity and he was powerless to stop it, so Shem turned his attention back to what his father was saying.

"And don't we want that?" bellowed Noah, "Did we not deplore the violence we had been threatened with every day of our existence? I begged God to deliver me from those murderous thugs, those depraved people. He answered me. Our God, Who created this world and is now destroying it out of disgust, wants us to prepare ourselves to make a better world. We are His tools. We must not look back at our old lives, or think about our former acquaintances, even our relatives..." At that Noah paused because everyone in that room had friends and family whose suffering and eventual death they grieved. "We must NOT look back, we must train ourselves instead to look inward, at our own hearts and minds, to align ourselves with the will of God, and accept what we do not understand."

Japheth and his wife unfurled themselves and sat up straight eyes wide open.

"While man and beast are being suffocated by water unto death, you shall be cleansed for a new life; your old man will pass away, let him or her go. As you sit in this inner sanctum of our ark focus your mind on the sacred inner sanctum of your body where lie your thoughts, your emotions, and your appetites."

Noah's strong voice and powerful words drowned out the loud din of the animals and the din of the driving rain when he said, "You, my holy family, are seeds of the re-creation of humankind. Prepare yourself for rebirth!" Noah paused after making that shocking proclamation. He wanted to give his family time to let the concept of their own transformation sink in.

The extended silence proved that it worked. Each of the seven men and women, even Sha-me, was thinking beyond his or her familiar fear and grief. None of them had chosen this forty day baptism, but it was chosen for them by their Creator God. Yet, it was up to each one of them, him and her alone to nourish a new self.

Eventually Ham was the first to speak. "Father," he said humbly, "Tell us, what is the first step of this transformation to be?"

Noah had a ready response. "Ham, my son, God has revealed to me that we were born and have lived in exile. The world we are leaving, the world that is now being destroyed had departed so far from the will of God that He had to annihilate it. The evil that you had grown so accustomed to, would surely have destroyed you too. Each of us alone must seek and find the way back from this exile to our God. By annihilating the world we knew, He is removing all obstacles for us, so we may return to a place we have never been before, to God's pure and perfect new world. These days are precious."

"Do you understand why you must not look back?" added Noah in response to the confused expression on many faces. "To look back at the old world is to revive what God wants destroyed. Use these days to look inward for the image of God in you, to find that place from which humanity strayed. It will be familiar to you even though you have never been there. I will teach you how to speak to God and to listen that you may each become His child. He knows the place in His heart where He wants to take you. Yield yourself to Him, trust Him and He will guide you there." He said piercing Sha-me with his royal blue eyes.

Suddenly a gust of wind caused the rains to rush through the window splashing every man and woman in the ark with the water of baptism. Noah didn't flinch, with water dripping down his face and beard he continued by turning to Shem and Shem's wife and shouted, "Surrender to God's will, die to your old self, and be reborn!" Lazaria began to weep in fear and clutched Shem's arm tightly.

Then turning to the others he said, "Ham and Japheth my sons, each of you has yielded your will to mine when you helped me build this shelter, now yield yourselves to God to build a relationship with Him, to be able to hear the invisible God speak to you."

Coochie got the chills when she heard Noah say that. Japheth could sense it and clenched her thigh. She turned and said to Japheth, "It was easy to think of how horrid many of those people were. How they stole and lied, how they hurt each other and hurt me with their arrogance and pride, but now that they are to die, and only we will live, it feels like such an awesome responsibility. No longer do I feel better than they. I feel small and unworthy to live." Japheth hugged her and simply replied, "I know what you mean Coochie, me to."

The sound of rain hammering the roof above their heads became more apparent, so Noah's voice bellowed louder as he announced, "We will gather here every morning to begin our day in prayer and worship. Let us ask the Lord to create in us new hearts worthy to live in a purified world."

Then Noah turned to his wife, "Sha-Me, my beloved. Cease thinking about what you will eat and what the animals will eat. Let us look on this 40 days as a period of abstinence and fasting. By changing our diet, we will develop self control. Self control to help us to combat evil temptations that remove us from God's will. If our grandparents Adam and Eve had the self control to refrain from eating the forbidden fruit, we would not have had to endure such evil and death. We will show God, by NOT eating, that we want to obey Him and Him alone."

Sha-me's eyes grew wide. She had no idea of what fasting meant. Her whole life, and that of everyone she had ever known focused on food, on growing it, or finding it and cooking and eating. All day long she worked to feed herself and her family. What could Noah be saying? She looked over at her daughters, the wives, to see how they reacted to this bizarre statement. Coochie and Lazaria sat up straighter and looked at each other with curiosity as if Noah spoke a different language, but not in shock as with Sha-me. The young men, who never cooked, but only waited for the meals to come to them, had no comprehension at all of what Noah meant by fasting.

Noah said to Sha-me, "You said yourself that the food is limited. We know we must be in this ark for forty days of rain, but how much longer will we have to be here before the water subsides and we can be on land again? We must use this time to develop our hearts and minds, not to keep focusing on our bodies. By limiting our intake of food, we will at the same time be conserving our food and building up our true inner selves."

Sha-me knew Noah to be the wisest man in the village; that is why she fell in love with him hundreds of years ago, but she had never heard him speak like this before. It sounded to her as if God Himself was speaking to them through Noah.

Noah continued, "The Lord told me that twice a week, on the fourth day, and on the sixth day, we shall eat no food at all, only we can drink water to remind us that on the fourth day He called forth two great lights in the sky to separate the day from the night to be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. On the fourth day of creation God made time. We shall not eat on the fourth day of every week. Let our empty stomachs remind us that God made the sun and moon, the seasons and time and be in awe of our Creator. He is worthy of our surrender to Him."

By this time, the wind died down to a refreshing breeze. The room and everyone in it were thoroughly wet, but the rains were falling straight down again onto what had begun to look like a thin pool of water above the ground. All that could be seen above the pool were trees and shrubs.

"On the sixth day of Creation," continued Noah oblivious to the disappearing earth outside, "God called the earth to bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals."

As Noah spoke, suddenly the lions roared, and the hyenas made their sounds to confirm that animals were created in the sixth day. "And on the sixth day," said Noah, "God also made our grandparents. He made humankind in His image, according to His likeness and He gave us dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And He gave humankind every plant yielding seed that was upon the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit for food.

So on the fourth day God made the sun and moon to regulate time, and on the sixth day God made everything we have here in our ark, humankind and the animals. Let our hunger on the fourth and sixth days become for us teachers and friends to remind us that God made us for His purposes, not for our own. As the flood reminds us that what He made, He also has the power to destroy.

Let us refrain from thinking about the body and what it will eat, my dear Sha-me, even the animals will fast on the fourth day and on the sixth days.

This knowledge will humble us, it will remind us to respect our Creator. The days of our fear are over. Don't recall them. No longer are we threatened by the wicked and the violent who were aberrations of God's design. They thought themselves more powerful than God, and look what is becoming of them.

On the days we do not fast, we will continue to eat our plants, and our fruit and nuts, but let us eat them in moderation for the journey will be long and our rations are limited."

Then Noah turned his head and shouted, "Ham!" Ham sat up straight as if called out of a daydream and replied, "Yes father."

Noah said, "Never look back! I implore you to prepare yourself, and you Shem, and you Japheth; you are the remnant of humankind. While this baptism of the world means death, for you it means a second birth."

Ham looked at his wife, and then over to his brothers and their wives with new eyes. It had never occurred to him before how transforming this experience would be. Ham remembered the long hard weeks of building the ark. It was so exhausting and difficult that he didn't have time to think about what it was going to be like to live in it. He too despised the wickedness of the world. To kill everyone, to purge the world of wickedness, was for Ham very satisfying revenge. Meanwhile his father was still talking.

"Our mission is to return from exile. Should our minds wander backward to the dead and dying, let it only be to remind us of God's power over us, and His judgment." Noah was silent again for a few moments to listen for what God had to say to him next. He was actually trying to grab a fleeting thought. It had something to do with judgment. 'Got it!' Noah said to himself, and then out loud, "Ham, Shem, Sham-Me, Japheth, wives, "If you have anything against any one of us here, before nightfall, discuss it or simply let it go. Forgive that person for trespassing against you. Our ark is small and there is no room for conflict."

Noah sensed that his family did not understand, but continued for a little while longer anyway because he felt compelled to send this message.

"We are all subject to anger and fear, even evil, but we must resist these passions."

At this point the family started squirming. Most of them were gazing out the window at the driving rain, for indeed the speed of its descent had increased. The sky had gone from a dim flat white to having large patches of dark grey clouds.

Noah sensed that he had said enough for the first meeting. After-all they had to check on the animals. "Today" he said loud enough to be heard but less vehemently, "you witness water falling from the sky; you see our family alone among human life in this ark as safe and sound as you were in our mother's womb. As certain as my warning of rain came true, so certainly will you see us survive this catastrophe and live in a purified world.

How shall we create a brighter future in a new world? Let each of us develop a passion, not to leave this ark, or even that the rains will cease, but a deep desire to become a child of the living God, and to make a new, safe, and peaceful world.

With that everyone stood up to bring the meeting to a close.

Noah said firmly, "Wait! Let's thank God with all our might for this day of life, for saving us from the fate of everyone outside this sacred room." Sha-me grabbed Coochie's hand and nodded for her to hold Japheth's hand and to the others to form a circle.

And then something remarkable happened. Shem's wife Lazaria began to chant, "Alleluia..." over and over, one word alleluia. One by one each person joined in until they were all chanting together, harmonizing, low tones and high with perfect pitch.

Noah was amazed at the beauty of the sound and Lazaria's beauty. To listen to his family harmonizing swelled Noah's heart and brought tears to his eyes.

One by one a person dropped out, beginning with Lazaria until only Japheth was left chanting the last alleluia.

After that, no one was ready to walk away. They all sat still and quiet listening to the rain fall.

Coochie broke the silence by saying to Noah, "Father, I want to change, I truly want to become a child of God. Please show me how." Then Japheth added, "So do I father."

Noah looked at Coochie and Japheth and walked over to them. Coochie stood to receive Noah's fatherly hug, and Japheth hugged the two of them. One by one, Ham, Shem and their wives joined the group-hug repeating, "So do I father." Until the seven formed a human bouquet, tall and short ones, hairy and smooth, lighter and darker. Only Sha-me looked on from a distance to admire her children and her husband with tears welling up from her heart and spilling out of her big green eyes.

ALIVE: Chapter Eight- Inside

Gently the rising water bore up the crowded ark high above the earth. It floated on the sea and was tossed hither and yon by the tug of the moon and pushes from prevailing winds.

Higher and higher did the ark rise on the surface of the water, over mighty oak trees and sheep covered hills, and over the shepherds of the sheep and the sheepdogs, and over desolate mountaintops. Teaming flesh and swarming creatures all succumbed to a vast army of raindrops. Even the birds of the air without places to perch, fell exhausted into the watery abyss.

The earth was surrounded by a soupy ocean brimming with every form of life it had ever known. Nothing escaped this stew of death but a wooden houseboat filled with the makings of a brand new world, and terribly confused fish and sea monsters which navigated around a million corpses.

For forty days and forty nights streams rose up from the earth as they had from the beginning of time, while the planet was being pelted with rain from above. Thus the waters above the sky rejoined the waters below in a colossal reversal of Creation. Day after day the continual shower washed the air, air that the wicked men who provoked this catastrophe could not breathe to save their lives. Nor could the power of their anger, or the memory of their murders, or their evil inclinations gain them or their neighbors or their children a moment of relief from this losing battle with death.

Inside the lifeboat the wives wept in fear and grief over the loss of their mothers and brothers, sisters and fathers, while their righteous husbands thanked God Who delivered them from evil. Awe and humility, awe and humility.

Slow down author! Don't gloss over the most powerful weeks in the history of humanity. What transpired inside that ark? Ask God to tell us; ask Noah to tell us. How did their thinking and their emotions evolve during this watershed period of human life? Though thousands of years have buried these powerful weeks deep deep deep down in our history; call them forth to this surface of time. Tell us what we want to know. Tell us what we need to know about the very first forty day Lenten period when God's chosen people left a dead and dying world to enter the womb of God. How did this primal Lent change our ancestors and inform our Great Lent?

Week 1.

"Noah, I'm terribly frightened; water is actually falling from the skies! How can we survive this?"

"Sha-me, I told you this would happen! Did you not believe me?" replied Noah a little too impatiently.
Now that the dry week of confinement was over, and the rains began to fall Sha-me, Noah's wife, wasn't sure what was worse, the anticipation of calamity, appearing insane to her neighbors and friends, sitting inside a building filled with loud, smelly animals, on beautiful sunny days, or the beginning of the end of the world. Unlike her neighbors Sha-me knew that the end was near, but that knowledge had sat like a rock in her heart; she wanted to dis-believe.

"Please my dear, we have no choice but to trust God. Look, He told me this would happen, and it did. We will be safe, I assure you." replied Noah a little more compassionately.

"But these animals! They are so loud! I can't hear myself think. My heart is clogged with worry. And how can we feed them all? We gathered food, but they are ravenous! And they smell so bad, I want to throw-up." cried Sha-me.

Noah felt as Sha-me did but refused to entertain those kinds of thoughts. He knew that his job was to keep the peace and sanity. Outside, the rains were coming down sporadically, and nothing terrible had happened yet. The people and animals outside the ark were simply afraid of something so unusual as water falling from the sky. Some of them, the men who taunted Noah the most, and who watched him and his sons while they were building; these men tried desperately to recall how he did it and tried to build shelters as Noah had. Others rushed into already crowded caves. The most remarkable effect of the rain was that the people stopped fighting amongst themselves. Some were too busy responding to this natural phenomenon while others were paralyzed with fear.

The animals outside of the ark were just as startled by the water falling from the sky as the humans were, only they couldn't build, or were smart enough to seek shelter. Dogs ran in circles, chickens and roosters squawked and squawked. Lions roared. A choir of horses neighed in syncopated rhythm louder than ever. The birds of the air had no sense of danger. They nested and perched safe and securely on branches of mighty trees far away from the clamor below.

People who lived on other continents, who never knew Noah or saw his ark being built, who had no inkling of something unusual about to occur, reacted differently. For these men, women, and children sheer chaos reigned. Men and women screamed, children cried, but like their neighbors, they sought shelter anywhere they could find it, in caves, under trees, in the clefts of rocks. Children and teens gazed into the skies to see where the water was coming from.

Not everyone in the ark was as upset as Sha-me. Shem and Ham realized how lucky they were and how proud they were to be sons of the one man in all the world to be saved from annihilation. From the time they learned what God had told their father to do, and they started to build the ark they felt privileged to be singled out for this mission. They were ready. Ham and Shem were ready to stand victorious over their wicked neighbors. They weren't even afraid of the unusual water fall. At thirty, they were mere children open to adventure. Besides, their father Noah had told them what to expect and the falling water proved that he was right. There was a peace in their hearts that they didn't comprehend, it made no sense that they should feel so calm and even slightly joyful in the midst of this natural phenomenon, but they did. The young men were not yet aware that their mother, Sha-me, was so upset.

When they were not commiserating, the young wives took the medicine of busyness by nesting; they made beds and decorated the walls of the ark with pictures and designs they drew with pieces of charcoal.

After a few days of light soothing showers, the rains accelerated with a vengeance. The steady beat on the roof of the ark was so loud that the sound of it even quieted the dumbfounded animals inside. By the third day of steady rainfall man and beast alike subconsciously tuned their own vibrations, their heartbeats, their breaths, to the rhythm of the drops, so that in a strange way the rain became as much a part of each one's physical being as their own flow of blood.

During the first week the ark still stood firmly on the solid foundation of earth. These were busy days as the family settled-in to routines of feeding and housekeeping, sleeping and socializing. Without the river to bathe in personal hygiene was a challenge. Noah cleverly constructed several large tubs smeared with pitch to collect water on the top level. One tub was for washing and another for drinking. A room on the ground floor was reserved for relieving one's self. It was Shem's idea to build a box with an opening on top. The plan was for the person to sit on the box and expel whatever they needed to. Shem put a wooden cover over the hole to keep the odor inside. It wasn't as good as going behind the bush and walking far away, everyone with their own favorite spot, but there was no choice. The family had many changes to grow accustomed to.

The outside world during this first week was still very much on Sha-me's minds. She did not know how her neighbors were reacting; she could only imagine it and she was right. After the first few days of hiding from the rain, most of the villagers got used to it and returned to their daily routines. Women watched their little children, men hunted and fished. No one was prepared for death.

Noah and his family had been preparing for survival for so long that the shift to the reality of it gave each one of them a mild subconscious jolt of melancholy when it actually started. Japheth and his was wife Coochie had doubted their father Noah when he told them that water would fall from the sky and everyone on earth would die. The couple couldn't imagine how water could kill; it was so useful and essential. Japheth and Coochie wondered how something so important and good could also be so harmful? "Besides," Coochie said, "if this God of Noah created the world and was so good, why would he want to destroy?" Coochie had many friends who were happy people, women with many children they loved. She couldn't believe that their creator would destroy them...and with water. Coochie and Japheth didn't dare express their cynicism to Noah, or even the brothers. Yet, their doubts was their favorite topic of conversation when they would go for walks together during the building days. Now that they were cramped up in this ark with thousands of animals and water outside falling from the sky, Coochie and Japheth didn't have the opportunity to talk about this reversal of their expectations, nor did they want to. Each in his or her own way was still trying to accept it. The falling water frightened Coochie and even Japheth too. Where was it coming from? It may as well have been raining frogs for how strange it seemed that there were rivers in the sky spitting at the world below.

During these early days all of Noah's family, the faithful and the two cynics alike were focused on their physical survival and comfort-seeking. Between their yearning for fresh air, and adjusting to the sounds of the animals and the cramp quarters, thoughts about God and the wisdom behind what was happening could find no opening in their minds to seep in until one night while trying to fall asleep Noah spoke to God.

"My Lord," said Noah, "are you still with me? I haven't heard from you in so long."

"Fear not, My son. I am with you."

"My family is afraid; what should I tell them?"

"Tell them that this ark is not a prison. It is for the shelter and protection of their lives. They should not fear, but be grateful to be within these loud walls. Tell them to think less about the outside world and to think more about what is reigning in their hearts and about this small gathering, My synagogue that is your family.

"But, Sham-me, and Japheth, they want to know why their friends and relatives must die."

"Tell them that I have seen that the wickedness of humankind is great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts is only evil continually. I am sorry that I have made humankind on the earth, and it grieves me to My heart. I must start over. Your family is the remnant that I will use for a new beginning."

Noah loved the Lord and feared Him. He wondered in his heart what he had done to find favor with God. He knew about the violence and hatred that ruled the lives of so many of the people, back biting and back stabbing each other continually. He knew about the murders and the rapes. He too was disgusted with the world, so Noah didn't want to challenge God's decision, but he also knew that the children and a few others were not quite so horrible. Noah wondered deep in his heart where he hoped that God could not see, if there could have been another way to make a better world without annihilating this one first.

"Noah, wake up." said God to the daydreaming man. "We can talk later; go take care of your family, and tell them to be grateful and not afraid. They are given an awesome responsibility to create a peaceful, loving world free from all enmity. Let them think instead about what this means and practice loving each other. Now go, I hear the zebras calling for you."

ALIVE: Chapter Seven - Days of Preparation

God and Noah were too busy building the ark to continue their conversation about evil, but Noah was not always too busy to keep thinking about it. He wondered why the powerful God would allow His creation to become so corrupted. He thought about it deeply, from many angles he thought about it.

Did God allow demons, Neanderthals, and sons of men to be whoever they chose to be, even when they corrupted and destroyed His Creation and defied His will ...in order to automate the world, so He wouldn't have to be involved in each and every action? Why, oh why did God want free will when freedom would ruin His design? God silently ignored these thoughtful questions; Noah shrugged his shoulders, relinquished his freedom to his Master and started building.

Step One. Fell the trees. Hundreds of trees were chopped down without saws or power tools. The work was hard and dirty, but Noah did not dare complain. They selected the largest and straightest cypress trees. Their tools were few: sharp rocks, and rope they made from hemp, and the wheel they constructed with anything they could get, a rock, a slice of tree. Rather than complain, Noah and his sons simply grew more and more muscular. The young men were proud of their old father for keeping up with them. The four men working in twos, Ham with Shem, and Japheth with Noah, managed to cut down twenty trees a day. The neighbors were furious, but were afraid to challenge such strong and determined men.

Noah hated the wickedness he saw around him, but he was used to it. It offended him, but he was alone in his opinion of his neighbors. Noah could not understand what motivated men to hurt each other without conscience; why did each person try so hard to dominate the other? All his life Noah tried to walk a straight line in a curly world.

Step 2. Haul the trees to the work-site. This is where the river came in handy. All they had to do was to drag the logs to the river. Once there, they assembled the logs into large rafts and floated the rafts down to the site of the building project. The cool water refreshed the men during their work. This relief gave Noah more time to think.

Noah knew God well enough to know about His tolerance, His forgiveness, and His love. He wondered though if God needed to be so generous-of-heart to contrast His goodness with evil, or to be superior to His enemy by continually creating and recreating, rather than always destroying as His enemy did? 'Come to think of it,' Noah said to himself, 'this flood will be the first time I can recall God ever destroying something.' He must deplore violence and wickedness more than He loves His creation. How much more frightening is God's disgust than the evil itself?'

Then Noah wondered if it was possible for good to exist apart from evil. He knew that evil could not exist apart from good, but he wondered what pure good would be like.

Noah asked himself. 'Could an antiseptic world be possible, and how would that world function?'

It seemed foolish to Noah that anyone would risk alienating him or herself from God. Then it occurred to him that for their part, no one else seemed to know that God existed. He wondered why God didn't make Himself obvious to everyone. Why was He so selective? No answer.

Step 3. Now it was assembly time. God spoke. "The length of the ark" said God, "shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. The door of the ark goes in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks, and divide the interior with rooms. Then, lay the roof on top of the ark, and finish it to a cubit above." God's plan was structurally sound. The hardest part was joining the interior rooms and constructing ladders to take them from one floor to the other. The building took months of hard and tedious labor to finish. Eventually the family's building skills could rest.

During the building phase Noah and his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth were too busy to think.

From time to time the Neanderthals came to watch and asked what they were doing and why. Noah responded that he was preparing for the end of the world, which always received a hearty laugh, a shrug of the shoulders, and departure. No one wanted to help. Eventually Noah's family was shunned by everyone in the village. Noah was glad to be shunned. There was too much to do to stop and talk with dead men.

Step 4. Cover the inside and outside with pitch to seal it. They had to amass enough pitch to seal the entire structure. From time to time it became obvious to Noah that an invisible brigade was helping them. Sometimes a tree came down a little too easily, or the pitch-making occurred too quickly. Making pitch from wood had always been such a slow painstaking process, but it seemed that they were producing more than they put in. Noah and his sons worked from dawn to dark. The mission seemed impossible, except for the invisible help they received.

In his 600 years on earth Noah had seen plenty of men die, but the thought that all of his neighbors would perish, and only he and his family would live made him feel awkward; it also made him fear God all the more. He wondered if, without all of these enemies, he and his children and grandchildren could make a better world, free from wickedness and violence.

'It has been horrible to see how violent and wicked the people have become;' thought Noah, 'perhaps God was right, humans simply live too long. I wonder how the world will change when a lifespan is reduced to a mere 120 years.' It seemed to Noah that children will be giving birth to babies. That seemed strange to Noah. 'If a person's life is consumed by a short cycle of being a child to caring for children, to caring for elders, then dying, it seems that a life-span would consist mostly of the foolishness of immaturity. But, I suppose God knows what He's doing.' In his own life Noah regretted not having his triplet boys until he was 570 years old. Most men became fathers between 60 and 200 years old, but Noah wasn't ready for family responsibilities yet. How these boys changed his life and how grateful he was for their companionship. His boys were only thirty years old, but like any viral hundred year old, they were strong and good.' Noah was proud of his sons for working as hard as they did without complaining or doubting him. They hadn't heard God speak to them as their father had, nevertheless they believed and obeyed their father without a hint of skepticism.

Step 5. Gather the animals and their food.

This step was easier than Noah and his sons were afraid it would be. The animals seemed to be drawn to the ark by a magical magnet. Not just one or two, but flocks of birds, in reds, yellows, and blues, black and grey birds, majestic large birds with white collars, little tweety birds, regal birds and humble birds all came careening into the building, then came the horses, the dogs, large dogs, small dogs, yappy dogs and growling dogs, and giraffe, antelopes, anteaters, wolves, zebras, and chimpanzees. Last of all came the flies, mosquitoes, (thousands of them, to be used for food as well) gnats, fleas, spiders, ticks and rodents. God charged his celestial servants with gathering the wildlife. Angels were more capable and thorough than anyone else could be.

Noah's wife and daughters-in-law had been tasked with food gathering. For months and months they stored up seeds, and worms, leafy plants, and vegetables of every kind they could find in the land. Rooms and rooms were dedicated to food storage. Openings in the walls provided adequate ventilation to prevent rot.

The womenfolk spent every waking moment preparing food for the day and for the coming months, for their family, and for their non-human co-refugees.

On the seventeenth day of the second month, before they were quite done, Noah felt a drop of rain fall from the sky. It was only one droplet and it only fell on Noah's head. The drop felt like a bell heralding a very important message. It said, "I have arrived, the first of an enormous army come to extinguish the enemies of God. Fear not, welcome me. I have fallen on you beloved Noah, as Holy Water from our Lord. What blesses you will annihilate your enemy. Rejoice, that you have been chosen to live through the devastation to come. Never before has faith been required of you. Be prepared."

This visit was followed by a ray of sunshine, and then a summer breeze. After the breeze came two more drops of rain, and then three. Japheth rushed over, "Father!" He exclaimed, "I feel water dropping from the heavens!"

"Japheth, go get your brothers and their wives." replied Noah fervently, "I will find your mother. Go quickly as we know not how this baptism will transpire. Hurry back!"

Then Noah went looking for his wife. She was bathing in the river. She looked beautiful that morning, her long wavy flaxen hair sticking to her back and shoulders. He stopped to let her enjoy the moment. She hadn't felt the raindrops. Soon Noah's wife emerged from the river clean and refreshed. He approached her gently and wrapped her in his arms. They stayed in each other's embrace for a while listening to their hearts beat in a syncopated rhythm, then Noah whispered in her ear. "My dear, the time has come to enter the ark. We mustn't look back. We will not speak to anyone in our path, let's just slowly walk into our new home together."

A tear fell on her cheeks when she begged, "Why now Noah? It isn't raining yet. May I please see my mother and father, my sisters...please?"

"No," replied Noah. "You must not. Come and trust the Lord" she reluctantly but obediently walked hand in hand with Noah. When they arrived, Ham was there waiting for them and Shem and his wife arrived within moments. Fortunately, there were no Neanderthals loitering around the entrance of their ark. The women went straight in. The men looked around for Japheth.

When Japheth and his wife finally arrived, Noah rushed them into the ark, and shut the door tightly behind them to make sure it was secure and locked from within. The family entered the ark without fanfare or ceremony; the most important event in the history of mankind passed as quietly and swiftly as a chick being hatched from its shell, as subtly as a loon disappearing into the depths of its pond to fish for food.

Safely behind locked doors, the family prayed in awe and humility, and with profound thankfulness to God, their creator and Savior. God answered each man and woman with a warm glow in his or her heart.

After the prayer, while they were still assembled, Noah's attention turned to Japheth.

The explanation for his tardiness was that Japheth's wife had gone to see her family one last time, but she obediently did not let them know what was about to happen. She explained her somber condition as illness before giving each person a hug good bye.

Then, all four women left the assembly to gather in another room to cry. All four men looked out of windows and peered into the distance and up to the sky which by then had cleared. A white dove, flew up to them and perched on the ledge of the window. one more bird can't hurt thought Noah when he let the dove in.

The next day being as dry and clear as the evening before caused the women to beg to get out, but God had told Noah and his family not to leave the building. For seven long days the family squirmed inside the ark as prisoners of God. Noah wonder if this was what the little drop of water meant when it told him that his faith would be tested as never before. Outside the sun shined brightly. The air was still and calm. From time to time one of the eight people inside peeked out the opening to see passersby making fun of them. Ham's wife didn't know whether to feel ashamed or sad for them. Noah told the young folk to be patient because God wanted to make sure that the family was safely installed in the ark before the skies opened up.

To pass the time, the menfolk developed feeding schedules, and discussed other logistics. They also invented games to play among themselves. No one came to the door as the neighbors had long since given up the family as a bunch of lunatics. Even the women's mothers and sisters stayed away for fear of being associated with the lunatics. Noah prayed, talking to God asking when something would happen. He felt so foolish and ready. God responded with silence.

On the eighth day, early in the morning, a few drops of rain fell upon the earth. It rained until the sun was high overhead and then it stopped. The rain stopped for the rest of the afternoon. The people were relieved when the rain stopped. They had never seen rain before and talked to each other about the unusual thing that happened. Water falling from the skies. Men, women, and children, even the ladies' family in the village began to wonder if the falling water had anything to do with the equally strange ark that Noah had built for his family and animals.

The rain resumed at sunset and did not cease until the end of time for that generation, except for Noah and his family. After three days of torrential downpour, the people started to panic. Large crowds fled to the ark and tried to break the doors down so they could enter, but it was impossible. The protected family inside felt the walls shake at the banging of people all around them, but no one could enter.

As the weeks went by Noah's family could hear an increasingly loud clamor of voices in shock over the rains. Day after day women's cries, and men's shouts ebbed and flowed. Until one morning when they awoke, all was silent. There were no more cries for help, no more angry banging on the walls, no roaring lions or weeping children. All was silent except the sound of rain on the seas that had formed. The family rushed to the opening and all they could see around them was an ocean of water, not even a mountaintop, just water. It looked to Noah's wife as if an hundred rivers had joined to cover the earth.

So it was that 2,006 years after Creation of heaven and earth with its plethora of animal and human life, in the tenth generation of humanity, God had regrets and determined to start over with eight humans, Noah, Ham, Shem, Japheth and their wives. From this family, a new shorter-lived human race would flourish on His beautiful planet. And so the first era ended abruptly. Soon, being Alive would take on new meaning, new purpose, and new challenges.

ALIVE: Chapter Six - The First Baptism

Do you not know that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of The Father, even so we also might walk in the newness of life. Romans 6:3-4

Make no mistake about it, baptism kills. It all started with the baptism of the Earth when water was used to extinguish corrupted life.

John the Baptist submerged men in water to kill the old soul, so that a renewed person would emerge in his place. As a seed is buried deep in black soil, where neither light nor oxygen can reach it, the baptized is buried in a watery grave that is equally hostile to the breath of life.

The death of baptism initiates souls into Christianity. To be a Christian is to be physically linked to Christ's sacrificial death through one's own watery death.

The emerging baptized Jew and Christian are reborn after experiencing death by water. Baptism wasn't always a symbol. It was the only way God could rebirth the Earth, to be rid of worldwide wickedness, the evil and violence of humankind. He didn't wash it way, He suffocated it.

"Lord, what are you are telling me?"

"Do you love Me?"

"You know that I love you Lord, I have walked with You before I could crawl. When I sat on my grandfather's knees, Methusalah opened the eyes of my mind to behold your majesty and your glory."

"Then trust me Noah, I must do this. I can no longer abide the violence of man and beast. This world grieves Me to the core. Before I made this earth I could not imagine that such hatred and vulgarity would emanate from it. The life I created has become rotten and malignant. I did not create evil, but I have the power to annihilate it, and I will!"

"Excuse me Lord, but before you do anything rash, let's talk this through. I was told by my father that You put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the center of a garden. You knew evil existed all along, but you didn't want my grandparents to eat from that tree; you didn't want them to have the knowledge of good and evil. Did evil exist before you created the tree, and before You created the Earth?" Without hesitating for a response, Noah continued, "Surely, the serpent was evil to convince Eve to distrust you, to want to be like you. He hadn't eaten of the forbidden fruit. Where did evil come from? Tell me Lord, did eating that fruit actually open the floodgate of evil that troubles you so? How?" Noah asked with as much meekness in his voice as he could muster, lest He offend God with his questions.

"Noah, you have learned well at your father's knees. But don't be fooled. Evil does not exist on its own, as if something created. It is a parasite thriving on its relationship with good. There is no such thing as pure evil; it is a good and evil dynamic. You are right to say that evil pre-existed Creation because I pre-existed creation. Evil has always taunted Me. The heavenly host has always included rebels, jealous demons which want to destroy everything I build. I hoped that Adam would not be aware of it. By his trust and obedience, he was linked to Me and in Me, who Am pure Good. I could have shielded him from destructive self consciousness that separated him from Me. I thought I could create a world where the absence of the knowledge of good and evil would allow man and beast to coexist in a peaceful, blissful state of ignorance. I wanted that. When Adam and Eve were led into temptation and accepted the irrational lie that by separating from Me, they would be like Me in wisdom knowing both Good and Evil, they destroyed my ideal for humankind. The only way I could suppress evil was for humanity to be ignorant of it by trusting Me."

"So, Lord are telling me that you expected ignorance to maintain peace and harmony? Really?"

God replied, "I prefer to think of it as innocence, not ignorance. Adam and Eve were my children; I wanted to protect them from the knowledge of good and evil. I hoped they would trust me enough to obey me."

"Lord, said Noah, "knowing Your enemy, surely You knew the day would come when ignorance, uh, I mean innocence would be shattered by Your parasitic opposition. The snake embodied your enemies, the rebel angels. Apparently, You could not keep evil spirits from infiltrating your world, expressly because it is so full of beauty and goodness. If they existed, they had to be discovered eventually. Ignorance, I mean innocence is unsustainable, even I know that." But that explains your lack of anger when they disobeyed You, and even when Cain killed his brother."

God was silent for a while, meditating on His conversation with Noah. God was actually enjoying this conversation, just as He enjoyed His conversations with Enoch, Noah's great grandfather in heaven. God was glad to have friends. This was the reason, He thought, that He created humankind, for companionship, for conversation. Even if humans were still so young and ignorant, like little children they could form rich relationships with Him. Noah kept the silence too. Noah too enjoyed his conversation with God. He wasn't afraid of Him, afraid he would be struck down by challenging Him. God had become Noah's best friend, just as Methuselah and Lamech said He would be. This silence was a densely rich kind of silence, a fragrant silence, a luminous silence and both Noah and God were basking in it.

Suddenly God blurted out, "Please don't try to talk me out of this Noah. I can no longer wait. I must start over; I must! I cannot allow evil to be so rampant. This parasite has gone too far. It is corroding My Creation! I will wipe out everything from the face of the earth rather than let evil prevail! I will re-birth the Earth and humankind!"

"Lord, please don't! You will be destroying our food too. What will become of me and my family? Have You thought of that? Surely there is something redeemable in this world. Look at flowers, at babies, how can you destroy so much that is good?" pleaded Noah who was shocked at the sudden passionate tone in their conversation.

Noah was afraid of what God was telling him. Although God's sudden anger was alarming, Noah knew that He was right. Just the day before he saw a man raping another man before his very eyes. He had seen dogs murdered for entertainment. He had seen lying cheating power-mongers exploit the most vulnerable. No one could be trusted. If Noah didn't have God for a refuge, he would have gone out of his mind.

"Noah, please don't try to talk me out of this," said God, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is full of violence because of them. I am going to destroy mankind and animals alike, all the creeping things of the earth, especially the serpents. By doing this I will destroy parasitic evil with its food, rather than save the good for evil to continue to consume."

"But Lord, then, aren't you being violent too?" Noah whispered.

God didn't answer, but neither did He mind the question.

Feeling guilty for second guessing God, Noah quickly changed his approach, "So what's the plan? How can I help?"

"Water." replied God. "When I separated the waters above the firmament from the waters below, the whole earth was filled with water until I gathered the waters to make the earth. I will go back to that day before land appeared and start anew. The whole earth will be only water again. With water I will suffocate everything that needs oxygen to live. Water is the foundation of life. I will destroy life with the foundation of life. It's My way." Smiled God with His tone of voice.

"How can You fill the earth with water again, now that you have gathered the seas to form land?"

"Simple, rain, I will release the water above the sky to fall upon the earth until it is full."

Noah was shocked and confused. He had never seen rain. The thought of water falling from the sky frightened him, but he didn't want to say anything. Noah had learned to trust God, so he figured that he would wait to see what would happen. Instead he asked self-consciously, "What about me and my family? Will you let us perish in this watery grave too?"

"No, of course not. Noah, I want you to build yourself a house-boat. We will call it an ark. It must be tight so the water will not enter and it will float on top of the sea. Into this boat you will gather pairs of animals of each and every kind, and birds of the air, for when waters come, they will have nowhere to perch. Your sons will help you. Now get started."

ALIVE: Chapter Five - God's Regret

Seth was unhappy that some of his daughters and even a son went to live in Enoch. He didn't know his brother Cain, but from what he heard Seth was glad that they never met. Seth didn't want to worry that he too would be killed by a jealous and violent brother.

Nevertheless it was no coincidence that Cain named his son Enoch and his brother, Seth, named his son Enosh. When their mother, Eve, told her children bedtime stories, his favorite story was about twin boys named Enoch and Enosh. It always made her children laugh to hear her say those names together. Enosh and Enoch of legend had adventures; they battled animals, and got lost on expeditions through olive-tree strewn fields, and played hide-and-seek in the crevices of rocky mountains. In Seth's favorite story Enosh and Enoch made friends with a dragon who let them both climb on him. Enosh and and Enoch flew through the plains faster than the hyenas and faster than the tigers. When they reached the seaside, undeterred, the dragon simply swam to the other shore. The only thing the dragon could not do was fly, although he tried. When Seth grew up and married one of his sisters because no other women existed, they had a child whom they both joyfully named Enosh.

Seth was proud of his first-born son, Enosh, for his strength and diligence. From the time he was a young child Enosh worked by Seth's side helping him to till the fields, shepherd the sheep, and milk the goats. Enosh was a reliable son.

Adam and Eve had many children who married each other, until there was a generation who could marry their cousins, until there was a generation who could marry from a pool of very distant relations, and until the earth started to fill with humans made in God's image. Humankind happily and lustfully obeyed God's directive that they be fruitful and multiply.

For the first ten generations since humankind was created, a man's lifespan was nearly a millennium! First-children were born to men as young as 65 years old, and as old as 570. Methuselah lived to be 960. After around 900 years bodies gave out and they were planted in the ground.

Here is the fascinating rundown:

Adam - at 130 yrs old had Seth. Adam lived to 930. Seth was 800 when his father, Adam, died.
Seth - at 105 years had Enosh. Seth lived to 912.
Enosh - at 90 yrs old had Kenan. Enosh lived to 905.
Kenan - at 70 years had Mahalel. Kenan lived to 910.
Mahalel - at 65 years had Jared. Mahalel lived to 895.
Jared - at 162 years had Enoch. Jared lived to 962.
Enoch - at 65 years had Methusalah, then walked with God at 365 years and was no more.
Methusalah - at 187 years had Lamech. Methusalah lived to 969.but
Lamech - at 182 years had Noah. Lamech lived to 777.
Noah - 1056 - (1656 year of the flood, his father and grandfather were both deceased) - 2006

THE FIRST TWO MILLENNIA OF TIME
Adam 0-930
Seth 130 - 1042 Adam died when Seth was 800.
Enosh - 235 -1140 Seth died when Enosh was 807.
Kenan - 325 - 1230 Enosh died when Kenan was 815.
Mahalel - 395 - 1290 Kenan died when Mahelel was 835
Jared - 460 - 1422 Mahelel died when Kenan was 830
Enoch - 622 - 987 Jared was still alive when Enoch disappeared.
Methusalah - 687 - 1656 Methusalah was 300 when his father Enoch disappeared, he was 735 when his grandfather Jared died. Methusalah outlived his son by 5 years.
Lamech - 874 - 1651
Noah - 1056 - (1662 year of the flood, his father and grandfather were both deceased) - 2012

In the seventh of the first ten generations the second Enoch was born to Jared. He was named after Cain's son Enoch, the first grandchild to exist on the face of the earth. On the seventh day of creation God rested from all his works. In this seventh generation the second Enoch gave God relief from troublesome humankind.

Since the beginning of time children have been worrying their parents, and that's a fact. Nothing can be done about it because willful humans are made in the image of a bold creative intelligent Father. Creativity and intelligence expressed by unique individual wills have a million zillion expressions like a cacophony of sound, an orchestra tuning up. When the symphony starts, one is almost amazed that all those different sounds could ever blend. That's why we needed a conductor like Jesus, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Back to the seventh generation Enoch. For the first time ever, a man existed who was in tune with God. In fact, God liked the spirit of Enoch so much that He brought Enoch up to heaven to be with Him, to be His friend. Enoch's body suddenly disappeared one day when he was only 365 years old. He didn't die and he didn't go to Hades. No one could find Enoch anywhere and they looked for a long time. They didn't believe it when Enoch's son Methusalah told them that with his very eyes Methusalah saw his dad disappear while he was praying. In the whole entire history of mankind, such an ascension only happened one other time, with the prophet Elijah. (Jesus had died first, and so did His Mother Mary, although their bodies did not stay on the Earth but ascended to heaven as well.) This shows that it is possible to be spared a physical death, but highly unlikely.

As humankind multiplied on the face of the earth conflict set the tone. Evil and violence disturbed the tranquility of nature. Sure, there were animals who killed each other, but they weren't angry, they were just hungry. Human hunger was for power and dominance. The Earth became corrupt and filled with violence. God blamed the sons and daughters of men (the more animal-like Neanderthals) who married the sons of God for corrupting His precious humankind who were made in His image and likeness. Humankind then became more like animals than God ever intended.

So, in disgust God said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever - people shall only live to 120 years old." Nine hundred years was much too long to watch in sorrow how people treated each other. God hoped that by shortening the life span, a more frequent series of starts and finishes might create a pool of good inventors, altruists, architects, and engineers, scientists, and philosophers; something He thought His planet was very much in need of, to supplement the farmers, shepherds, and home makers. But instead of arbitrarily shortening a lifespan by 85 percent, God needed to do something dramatic.

One fine day in November, when the sun was shining brightly in the sky and the birds were chirping with glee, Enoch's grandson, Lamech, and his wife gave birth to a very special child. Perhaps this baby inherited his spirit from his great-granddaddy, Enoch whom God had scooped up to keep as a friend. Lamech took one look at this infant and said to his wife, "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands." That work and toil was the curse on Adam for obeying Eve who disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was Lamech's way of prophesying that his special child would rise above the curse on humankind. Lamech and his lady Laureli named this child Noah. God liked Noah, maybe for the same reason He liked Enoch. Good chemistry.

Back in Cain's country of Enoch, not far from Nod, another line of people existed to trouble Father God with evil and violence. What is peculiar is that Cain's great grandson was named Methushael who was the father of a boy named Lamech, just as in Seth's line Methusalah was the father of a boy also named Lamech. Methushael and Methusalah, like Enosh and Enoch, didn't know each other. Except for in their names, Methushael and Methusalah were as different from each other as potatoes and starlight, and so were their sons the two Lamechs.

Cain's Lamech, like his great grandfather before him killed a young man who struck him, but decided on his own, without a peep from God, that God would protect him even more than He had protected Cain with the special mark that prevented him from being killed-back. There was no hereditary reason for Lamech's claim. It was simply fear-induced egotistical optimism. Lamech said out loud for his two wives, Adah and Zillah and all the angels and demons to hear, "I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-seven fold." What a puffed up rooster of a man!

Cain's Lamech killed a man and Seth's Lamech gave birth to God's charmed Noah. From the tree of Adam both good and evil grew. The all-intelligent Creator regretted making humankind. He wanted to undo, He wanted to backspace-delete. God learned that He could not make a being in His image, and expect it to stay like Him.

Human beings are not animals. We are different. Every kind of dog has a general disposition that is common to that kind, but willful intelligent humans are a wildcard.

Before reducing man's lifespan God decided to start with a clean slate. He decided to erase with water all but seven pairs of each animal, and one family (four pairs) of humans. Only the fish of the sea and the birds of the air would survive this holy terrible baptism of the Earth.

It was no coincidence that Enoch had been transported to heaven alive when God was deliberating His Clean-Slate plan. Enoch lobbied for his great grandson Noah to be the chosen one. He begged God saying, "Lord, please let one family live so you don't have to re-create humankind again. You did well, this time start with a better man than Adam. Let my grandson Noah build a house that will float on the water so he can survive the annihilation of mankind. Noah loves You, and he will trust you. He will make a good new world full of humans. No longer will you have to fret over murderous Cain's family tree." So together God and Enoch planned the great flood that was meant to purge the earth of evil, and shorten the human lifespan.

The flood had not been an impulsive decision. In fact, God has sent for Enoch 975 years before specifically to help him carefully plan it. It was Enoch who suggested that both Methusalah and Lamech should die before the flood so Noah would not be forced to leave his father or grandfather behind. That would have been cruel. When the time was right, the rains of baptism came pouring down on earth.

Rain was new. Until that day water had never fallen from the skies. Morning dew irrigated the trees and plants, and the seas had more than enough water for all other purposes. So the first big shocker for the evil Lamech and all the other haters and fighters was rain. It brought a deluge of surprises for all the egotistical power seekers, most of whom who didn't even know that a God existed.

So it was that in the tenth generation since the birth of Adam, one thousand six hundred and sixty two years after God created humankind, he obliterated them all except for the family of Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives, eight human beings...and their zoo.

ALIVE: Chapter Four - Little Gods v. Nature

Reproduction is key to life. One plus one becomes three. Grieving childless Adam bestowed upon receptive Eve another of his seeds and out popped Seth, who knew no brothers for a long time. When other sons and daughters were born to Adam and Eve, they told their new crop of children about the murder of Abel and that killing one's brother was the worst thing a child of God could do to his or her own soul. The wiser family never visited Cain in Nod. Adam tilled Able's blood into the earth more and more every spring until it eventually produced a fragrant patch of thyme.

Year after year Eve hoped that her invisible beloved son Able would visit her like invisible God had so often, but the empty silence lingered like an unwelcome guest. Only her memories of the carefree child who played with his frolicking lambs in the sunshine kept the memory of Able alive in her heart. Baby Seth kept Eve busy with his childish antics, and soon she heard herself laugh again. It had been a very long time since laughter had welled up in her.

Eve taught her children that God made her to be like Him, and that she could invoke His name and He would listen to her, and sometimes speak. Adam told their children that God was his father and their grandfather. God spoke less and less. Seth and his brothers and sisters sensed that they were being protected by an invisible, but all powerful God whom they didn't comprehend. No one else was murdered. Neither did anyone give gifts to God. Instead, they worked to grow food and ate it, and slept when the sun went down, and woke up at sunrise in a steady rhythm we call Life.

The family of Adam and Eve were a peaceful family, they were creative and generous and very intelligent. Adam and his sons made tools to help them with their farming and to help them make shelters that kept the animals away, and that gave them shade in places where trees did not grow. Eve and her daughters composed songs and made clothing out of hair and and string they pulled from vines and branches of trees. They were happy and showed it by singing and dancing together.

After thousands of suns and moons appeared and disappeared the children grew tall and strong in mature bodies that resembled their parents. More children were born from them and no one ever died, until one day Adam, when he was 930 years old, laid down to sleep and never woke up.

Eve spotted Adam's body while on a walk to gather flowers. She took a good long look at him and shook him to wake up. Adam didn't move. He appeared to be dead like Abel, only without the blood all over him. Eve was astonished and screamed. Then she cried. She wondered if Adam had gone to find Abel. She called out to God to tell her where Adam had gone. But God was silent.

In her grief, Eve remembered the day when Adam had told her not to eat from the tree with the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. He warned her then that she would die. But she didn't know what death meant, and she still didn't understand death. That was 930 years ago. Eve had never since the murder of Abel seen a dead human being. Adam was the first natural death that she had witnessed and she didn't expect it. Eve didn't know how this happened and where Adam went. She moaned; she wept; she cried. She cried out to God to come and talk to her and tell her what happened to Adam. Adam's skin turned blue and stiff.

Seth heard his mother screaming and crying and rushed over to her. He saw his father in stillness and looked away. Instead he tried to console his mother, but he was afraid too. His brothers and sisters ran up to Seth and Eve to ask what had happened. Then they looked down at Adam's lifeless body and gasped. Each of them gasped, one after the other they gasped in a symphony of horror.

Eve remembered that Adam and Cain planted Abel in the earth and so she told her sons to go over to Abel's grave and plant another beside it so Adam could lay deep in the earth by his son. After they buried Adam, Eve walked alone up to her favorite hill where she often went to think about her life, or her children, and about the days when they lived in Eden. When she arrived, she found her favorite rock and sat upon it and weeped alone some more. She called out again, begging God to come to visit her. It had been so long since she felt His presence.

Soon, the familiar cool breeze swept across Eve's tear stained face. "My daughter," said God, Yahweh "Don't despair. You will soon be with Adam, my son. I never wanted you to know death, how I wanted to shield you from the destructive power of sin."

"I wanted to be wise like You my Lord." she replied defensively. "Please take me to Adam now. I want to be with him." She was comforted by talking with the Lord again and hoped He would never leave her.

"First you must return to your children and make sure that they know Me and know that they can invoke My Name and I will come to them. For just as you and Adam were made in My image so were your children and grandchildren. Let them know that humankind flows from Me. Will you do this? Then you may rejoin Adam and Abel beneath the earth."

"Lord, I don't know what it means to be made in your image? I can't see You, I can only feel Your presence. Who are You?"

The Lord God had compassion on Eve in her ignorance, and answered, "Eve, look around you at all that I have created and by my Creation tell Me who I am."

Eve looked up at the horizon to her left and right as far as she could see, then she looked at the field below and saw cattle grazing. She saw chimpanzees swinging from limb to limb in the nearby woods. She saw orchards of fig and olive trees. Then she looked down at lavender and pink and white wild flowers of different shapes and sizes blanketing the earth and little chameleons scurrying busily between them. With her eyes drinking in the grand variety and beauty, the balance of living matter and non living matter, of rocks and dust, and water, she finally looked toward God's voice and said, "You are amazing! Did you really create all of this before You created me?"

She felt God smile. Then she added, "I see that You must be brilliant and sensitive, creative and artistic."

"As are you and your children, My dear one. Tell them to use the gifts that I have given to humankind wisely. It is a big responsibility to be endowed with so much. More than what you see, my child, I have placed My Kingdom in your hearts. Live there in peace and honor Me, and we will be together forever."

"What is there left to create, my Lord? You have given us everything!"

Eve heard a little chuckle from God.

"I have only given you the foundation, the building blocks; tell your children to go and build a world within this world, made by your equally intelligent and creative minds, then I will come to visit and be proud of you."

Just as suddenly as He arrived at her calling, Eve felt the spirit of the Lord vanish. She wondered where He went.

Strengthened and composed Eve descended the hill to carry out her mission. She called her children together and told them that she too would soon die as their father had, and she told them everything that God wanted them to know. She hoped that they would remember and be as kind and compassionate to each other as God and Adam had been to her.

Eve felt ambivalent about dying. She wanted desperately to be with Adam and Abel no matter where they were, but she didn't want to leave her children, and her garden. She was frightened to live under the earth where the sun did not shine and there was no air to breathe.

Over in Nod Cain and his hairy wife gave birth to Enoch and several other children. The children of Cain and Farley were as handsome and bright as Cain. They were not hairy and dull-witted like their mother. Farley grew proud of the looks of her husband and her children. She no longer thought hairless Cain was odd. Their children were more industrious and creative than any other children in the land of Nod.

After many years of living in Nod and being ridiculed for his smooth skin, Cain took his family and left to built a city of his own. He named it Enoch after his first born son. Cain encouraged his children to go to the land of his birth, and choose wives and husbands from the children of his parents, so his grandchildren would be smooth skinned and industrious too.

Cain and Farley took their stores of food and cattle to Enoch. There Cain taught his children to invoke the name of the Lord God. As time went by the sons of Cain returned to Enoch with the daughters of Seth and the other sons of Adam and Eve who wanted to find wives in Enoch. They were very curious about their Uncle Cain, the killer, but they found him to be sensitive and intelligent. He must have changed in the last five hundred years, they thought.

Cain was told that neither Adam nor Eve existed anymore but that they had been planted in the earth next to his brother Abel. Cain was angry and asked who killed them? Cain did not know of anyone dying for any other reason, but his sons assured him that after 930 years, they naturally grew tired and slept and then were no more. They explained to Cain that Eve had told her sons to plant Adam in the earth, and then to plant herself beside him. Cain cried. It was like a second death to have left his mother and father, and then to have them leave him and the earth. The sons of Cain and daughters of Eve told Cain and Farley what the Lord God said about being made in the image of the Creator of the earth and all that is on it, and all that swims in the seas of it, and all that flies over it. Cain recalled a very faint memory of his father telling him the same thing when he was a child.

Then Cain remembered how kind God was to him to give him the mark of protection. Indeed, many times since he left home Cain felt the power of that mark keeping him from being killed.

The next morning Cain and his sons and daughters helped Enoch build a wall around his city.

ALIVE: Chapter Three - Children of Men

We last left our less than great grandfather, or possibly uncle Cain, taking a break to scarf down strawberries while attempting to run from his blood stained hands to Nod.

Cain was a torn man, at the same time a murderer and the first-born son of the first two children of God who had been born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man but of God. Cain knew his Grandfather, the Creator of heaven and earth. Cain lied to Him. After he had killed his brother, the Lord God asked Cain where Abel was. Cain replied, "I do not know, am I my brother's keeper?" Cain was not only a self-centered murderer, he was also a sassy fool." Am I being too judgmental?

This whole scene began when Cain and Abel gifted God with the fruits of their labor. God preferred Abel's flock over Cain's fruit of the earth. That infuriated Cain. After all, Cain thought to himself, 'Didn't I work harder than Abel to till the ground (with sticks and sharp rocks,) plant the seeds and pull weeds in the scorching sun? Abel just strolled his little animals to the stream while I was hauling the heavy water to my plants.' The sooner one learns to accepts the fact that God doesn't have the same sense of fairness as we do, the better. Understanding is an option, obedience is not. God's unusual sense of fairness must be tied to His emphasis on forgiveness, which when you come down to it, is the epitome of unfairness, but is very Godly.

In an attempt to defuse his anger, God had told Cain that he would be accepted too if he did well. But if he didn't do well, God warned him, "Sin is lurching at your door. It wants to destroy you." Cain would have to master sin. Cain didn't know what God meant by doing well or what mastering sin meant. Instead he followed his impulse to lead his brother to the field where he stabbed him with an arrowhead. Did Cain think that by eliminating his competitor, he would win God's favor by default? Did the serpent make him do this too as it made his mother, Eve, eat the forbidden fruit? Did Adam and Eve eating that piece of fruit make Cain mean?

Cain's stupidity is not surprising. What is surprising is that after punishing Cain with eviction, God blessed him with a mark to protect him from any murderers that he may encounter out in the world. Cain was sent away from his precious soil, and from the presence of God into a world populated by children of men.

Steeped in thought Cain eventually arrived at Nod. A man approached him who looked like himself upright with long muscular dangling arms, except the main was very hairy and looked stern; Cain was scared. God was silent.

Cain and the man communicated with facial expressions and sounds. Translated here is what they said to each other.

"Who are you? And where did you come from?"

"I am a wanderer, but I want to stay here. My family is from Eden. I met a man from Nod many moons ago. He told me about this village. I have come to look for him. I used to farm the land, I could grow much food. I had to leave my farm because the soil became sour. I want fresh rich soil. May I live among you?"

Cain said nothing about his crime, or about God. The man said nothing about God because he didn't know where he came from, or that God existed. The man from Nod was hairy, Cain was not. Cain was a tall muscular man with shiny white teeth straight as piano keys, smooth olive colored skin, with green eyes and glistening light brown hair. Cain was glad the man didn't say anything about God. His fear gradually melted away as his confidence grew with the thought that he could be accepted for his farming skills and his seeds.

Three new hairy men walked onto the scene. When they saw the stranger they wondered if they should kill him.

"What is that animal?" Said one of the three to the others.

"I know him! I met him near Eden. He told me that he is called a human."

Recognizing that one, Cain shouted out. "Hello there, remember me? I have come to live among you. Give me land and I will give you food. I bring seeds." No reply.

The tallest of the men of Nod was not as tall as Cain. The man Cain had been speaking with walked over to his friends leaving Cain alone to wonder if he should run or stay. He was too tired to run.

The four men argued loudly. Cain did not understand what they were saying to each other. He wondered if he should slip away and find another place to settle, but besides being tired the soil looked rich and fertile, so he waited. He wondered whether the ground's curse on him for receiving his brother's blood stretched this far.

The four natives quieted down and walked over to Cain.

In their language the one most familiar to Cain spoke. He said, "You take my sister as wife and you may have land."

Cain replied. "Take me to your sister that I may see her."

The troop walked in procession to the center of the village where the women were cooking the day's meal together. The women were as hairy as the men. They all had dark brown eyes and wavy long black hair.

The brother shouted, "Farley, come."

With her head bowed demurely she obediently walked over to her brother and the weird hairless man.

"You will take this man as your husband. Come, I will show you the land you may settle in."

For centuries readers of Moses' creation story have wondered where the other people came from who lived in Nod when Adam and Eve were the only humans mentioned. Anthropologists have contemplated the evolution of humankind from Neanderthal. The fact is that not all homo sapiens were formed in the image and likeness of God as were Adam and Eve.

But when Cain, a child of God married a daughter of man, his children and grandchildren, became human, and thus gradually the brilliance of the human mind made in the image of God, and the sensitivity of the human heart dominated growing stronger with each generation. For the most part, the hairy body disappeared. Being alive gradually started to mean being sensitive and aware of the divine and most complex design of life.

ALIVE: Chapter Two - The Next Day

Cain went to live in the land of Nod to try to escape the emotional grip of the blood-stained earth that reminded him of his jealousy and his crime. Childless again, Eve had plenty of time to think about life and death. She still couldn't imagine how she could die someday since Abel was murdered, and no human had ever before died a natural death.

The chirping birds reminded her of the days before she knew death at all. She wondered to herself if she had been more alive when she was ignorant of death. Then she thought about Abel and that God said that Abel had been sent to a place called Hades. That concept was too much for her, so she went looking for Adam.

"Adam, Adam where are you!" she called. Eve went over to his favorite cave and called his name again; no answer. Then she went to Cain's garden where she found him tying up tomato plants on the clever conical frames he had constructed with branches and vines.

"Here I am, what is it Eve?"

"Adam, can we talk?"

"Okay," he said somewhat glad for the break. She went closer to him and together they walked hand in hand up the hill to their favorite grassy spot. When they arrived, Adam was first to break the silence, "What's on your mind my dear?"

"Adam, before I was created, did God tell you anything about being alive without a body? How is that possible? Being alive to me means being able to see and hear and feel, it means to be able to run through the fields and hug and make cartwheels. Remember when God said that Abel went to Hades? How is that possible? We buried his blue lifeless body in the earth, did it go deeper?"

"No, Eve. God didn't tell me anything about that. Remember, before you came we never had anything to do with death. But think about it, God is alive, and we speak to Him and He to us, but He has no body, and He said we were made in His image. So being alive may have nothing to do with being in a body."

Eve's grief turned to confusion and then despair. She began to weep.

"Come on Eve, snap out of it. There is nothing we can do but live and breath, grow food and eat it, and tend Abel's flock. We should be much too busy to think. Let's go back and work on those tomato plants some more. Don't you like that name I gave them? TOE-MAE-TOE! I thought it sounded rhythmical." Adam said trying to console her with a little levity, but he only succeeded in making Eve think even more.

Meanwhile, Cain was well into his journey alone hiking up and around mountainsides and traversing stream beds where he washed off his brother's blood and watched it turn the clear water mauve. While hiking, Cain had plenty of time to think. He thought about his brother and he missed him. Abel should have been on this journey with him. They had had so many boyish adventures together, climbing trees and trying to ride on the animals. But soon his sense of guilt returned and with it the fear. He had to remind himself that God marked him so no one could kill him. He imagined himself inside an eggshell of stone. Then he wondered how God could have been so kind to him after what he had done to destroy his own flesh-and-blood brother. It was as if the depths of his jealousy was elevated by the extreme height of God's forgiveness like a magnet that sucked up his sin. Sin, what did God say? Cain struggled to remember. It was something about sin crouching at your door. Ummmm. If I don't do well, sin will be crouching at the door to take me. Then what? What did God say about sin? I need to master it, and not fall into its grip.

The fear Cain felt forced him to try harder to understand God's advice. It was the only defense he had against collapse. Master sin. Master sin? I have no idea what that means? He thought to himself.

Then his thoughts turned to Abel again and how he would work with his sheep, how he corralled them and drove them hither and yon, from the grassy fields to the streams. Abel was the master of his sheep. "What do I know about being the master of anything?" He thought. "My plants don't have a mind of their own. They never go off to hide. I have never had to master anything or any one. Well, maybe I tried to master Abel, so I killed him. Oh Abel!!! Please come back and help me learn how to master sin."

"Fall into its grips... Is that what happened when I killed my brother? I don't know what that means." Cain's mind spun him to and fro. He felt like he was grabbing at strings in the air. Every time he caught one, another would slip away. He fell to the ground in mental exhaustion. Fortunately for Cain, he was in a grassy field. He closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh smell of the grass. On the ground he decided to sleep away his confusion. Sleep wouldn't come so fast. So he tried to free himself from his thoughts by simply feeling the warmth of the late afternoon sun on his bare skin. He listened to all the different sounds of birds and little animals around him. He tried to identify them, then he tried to count them. Sleep finally took hold of him.

"Cain, I'll race you to the that olive tree, okay? Ready, set, ...

"Wait a minute! I am not ready."

Abel started running anyhow and three little sheep ran by his side.

Seeing his brother running with the sheep, Cain took off to catch up. The faster he ran the farther away he got from Abel. Slowing down to breathe convulsively he looked up to see in the distance Abel engulfed in a sea of sheep and strange winged beings that looked human hovering in the air.

"BOO! Did I scare you?" said Abel right in his face. "Come here sheep, now stand in a straight line. Show this brother of mine what it means to obey."

An handful of sheep of different sizes all lined up head to tail in a long serpentine formation, like an army of wool.

"Heads left!"

All sheep heads faced Cain. Ten or twelve sets of eyes stared at him to pierce his guilt ridden soul.

Cain turned his head away. He couldn't bare to see those eyes upon him.

He started to run. But he found himself running toward Abel.

"Stop!" Shouted Abel. "I command you to stop running." Cain wondered how he could hear Abel so clearly. It was as if his brother was speaking to him within his own head.

Just then, Cain awoke in a particularly dewy mist. Drenched and groggy he stood up to shake off the water. He was glad and sorry that he only saw Abel in a dream. While he was still partially in his dream and in his reality, Cain tried as hard as could to return to the dream where he could be with his brother again, and ask him if he knew how to master sin. Cain hadn't forgotten how much he wanted to know what that meant.

Then he remembered how his mother and father would call out to God and God would come to them. Perhaps he could try that too.

"God!" Cain shouted as loudly as he could. Then he waited for a while. Nothing.

"God!!!! I need to talk to you!!! Please come here!" he yelled a full octave louder, surprising himself.

After a while of silence Cain continued on his lonesome journey to Nod.

A half a mile later Cain felt a foreign presence within him. To test it he asked, "How will I eat if I cannot tend my precious fruits and vegetables?"

A reply came, "As a wonderer you must forage for your food. God will provide. He already has when He planted the food for you ages before you were even conceived in your mother's womb."

Then Cain asked, "Why did God prefer Abel's lamb to my offering? We both gave Him of the fruit of our labor?"

The inner voice replied, "Because blood the lamb will have great significance for our Lord. You couldn't have known that. Where you went wrong, was to care so much. Your concern was only for yourself, not for the Lord's joy, or for your brother's."

"Was that sin?"

"Yes. Sin is anything that separates you from the image of God. You allowed yourself to be different than a loving God whose rejoices in His children equally. You pulled yourself out of God's circle of love. Imagine a powerful centrifuge going around and around and now imagine that you jettisoned yourself with self centeredness and disturbed all of creation. Like electrons taking off, like a planet shooting out of orbit, like chaos."

"I have no idea of what you are saying. What is an electron; what is chaos?"

"Of course you don't." replied the spirit. "Sorry, don't bother to try.

The point is that sin is at the same time a foreign substance that you can and must control, and it is infused in your being, crouching at the doors of your mind and heart. If you don't master sin it will master you. It will drive you to do things, like kill your brother, that will continue to fling you from God-likeness. You must first learn how to see sin as an unwelcome guest within you, much in the way that I am a visitor within you right now. You must create an inner shield deep within your mind and heart to separate yourself from sin, then master it."

The spirit went on, "Did you notice how kind God was to you, even to the point of giving you the mark of protection, just as He gave your parents clothing when they sinned, when they separated themselves from His love?

You Cain, like your parents before you separated from God, but in the same manner, with your will, you can bring yourself back into alignment.

Try to be like Him as you go into the world and encounter children of men who will act in opposition to you. Treat them as God treated you and your parents in your own rebellion. I have said enough. Think on these things that you may live."

The spirit left Cain as suddenly as it had arrived. He tried to continue the conversation in his mind, but nothing came. It was more obvious than ever, that he wasn't talking to himself, but to a sort of spirit who was counseling him.

By then Cain's stomach growled loudly. No sooner had the thought come into his mind than He looked at his feet to find himself in the midst of a field of strawberries. He crouched down and popped strawberry after strawberry into his mouth with such rapidity that the little chipmunks ambling around stared at him in amazement.

ALIVE: Chapter One - The Story Begins

"Come on Adam! Get up and play with me!" She called. "It's such a beautiful day! I'll race you to the fig tree. "

Adam didn't budge. He was trying to nap and so he pretended to not hear her.

Giving up Eve muttered, "Okay, I'm going for a walk. Sweet dreams sleepyhead."

Eve walked through the field of bright yellow buttercups, and other wild flowers whose names she couldn't remember, purple ones that made bouquets all by themselves, and little iridescent white platters of petals. The earth was so beautiful on this spring morning that she was thrilled and grateful to be a part of it. Gaggles of blue winged, and red crested birds flew over head. Their chirping was so loud that she wondered what they could be saying. They sounded so busy and so serious.

While she was gazing up at the birds Eve stumbled over a large rock and fell to her knees. At that moment a long garden snake approached.

"Oh no not you again!" She exclaimed. "Haven't you done enough damage? Go away. I am never speaking to you again."

The snake slithered closer to her and replied, "What are you talking about? I did you a favor. And look, you're not dead are you?"

"I know you tricked me, and besides, I didn't even know what being dead meant, and I still don't.
All I know is that everything seems so different now. You told me that I would become wise. Well I don't feel wise. I don't even know what being wise means either."

The snake chuckled slyly to himself and said, "See! God still loves you."

"And I still love Him," she barked back as if threatening the slimy snake.

"God!" Eve shouted out to the air, "Please come here and make this snake leave me alone!"

No sooner had Eve said that than she felt the familiar warm breeze caress her face and wrap her in an airy blanket infused with the sweet smelling fragrance of lilies of the valley.

Through the feeling of fatherly love Eve watched the snake shrug his shoulder and bury himself into the earth.

"Thank you Lord." She said silently. "But while you are here, may I ask you a question?"

God replied, "Of course my daughter; speak."

"What is death? Is being wise death?" Eve paused to wait for His reply and then added, "I don't feel wise, or dead. I don't even know what they mean. All I know is that since that snake tricked me and I disobeyed You. I feel sad sometimes, and i have to wear these clothes. Are You angry with me Lord?"

"Not angry, Eve; just disappointed that you didn't trust Me, and sad for you."

"But you made that snake, God!" She exclaimed. "Didn't you know what he would do? How did he get to be so sinister?" Before God could answer Eve added, "Why are you sad for me Lord? I'm happy. I love this beautiful world you made for us." And then, to change the subject, she said, "Look what I can do!" Eve flung herself to the ground sideways in a straight flat cart wheel, and then another, and another before she stood up straight with her feet planted firmly on the ground and her long arms opened wide as could be.

She heard God laugh and it made her happy again, so she decided to say goodbye to Him and continue on her hike through the fields. Soon she grew hungry and decided to walk over to her son's garden to get something to eat.

When she arrived she called out to him, "Cain, Cain, where are you?"

In muffled and distant voice, as if he was crying out from the bottom of a well she heard Cain say, ""Here I am mother."

Cheerfully, Eve walked toward the sound, but her cheery countenance plummeted when she arrived to behold her beloved son covered in blood. She looked beyond him and there was Abel, the sweet shepherd she loved lying still, and without breath, his skin had turned color and his wide opened eyes showed a stone face face filled with fear.

Eve was dumbfounded. "Abel, wake up!" She shouted shaking him. "What is wrong with you! Abel, my son, what is wrong?!" She had seen animals and flowers die, but never before had she witnessed a human death. When Eve realized that Abel was dead, she screamed so loudly in fear and horror that the birds of the air, and every living breathing creature fled from her presence. Adam also heard her and ran across the fields to where he found her with Cain. He gazed on the bloody lifeless body of his youngest son, and then up at the scene of Cain and his mother both stunned and silent.

God too arrived at this dastardly scene and was the first to break the sin-laden silence. He said to Cain, "I heard your brother's blood cry out to Me from the ground. Why have you done this?"

In the same hollow tone that drew his mother to him, Cain shifted the blame, "I was angry because you had regard for Abel's offering, but not for mine."

God said, "I told you that if you did well, you too would be accepted, but if you did not do well, I warned you that sin was lurking at the door; its desire is for you, and that you should Master sin and not fall into its grips. Now see what you've done!"

Cain replied, "Bring him back, Lord. You made us, make Him live again for mother's sake."

"I will not do that." replied Father God, "You must learn about the consequences of your action, as your mother and father are learning. Sin kills, and death is permanent. Besides, I created a place called Hades where Abel's soul went. He is there alone, but soon all of mankind will follow, and to that place of the dead, even I cannot go because I am Life, the creator of life and the essence of life. I have no place for death within me and I cannot leave myself. That is final. One day Cain, you will go there too and have to face your brother again. Get ready for that day."

Eve and her husband Adam lay weeping by their son's side. They heard nothing of what God said to Cain. She was stroking his hair and patting the lifeless body of her little shepherd who had died because of the sin of his brother. Adam said, "Now we know death. Now, we are dead too." Talking to himself he added, "When we disobeyed God, we didn't even know what death meant, and in that day we didn't die as God had threatened, but today I see and feel death."

"My son, my son where art thou?" Eve could not be consoled; the shock of a human death overwhelmed her more than if the sun failed to rise above the mountaintop, as if the earth opened up to swallow her. Nothing that she had experienced since her creation prepared either Eve or Adam for this moment.

God spoke. "Cain, now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wonderer on the earth." And to Himself God said as He cringed to see the lifeless body of Abel whose gift had pleased Him so, and caused this violent end, 'Someday I will make a shepherd boy king of my people, and he will kill ten thousands of his enemies.'

Cain wept loudly and replied, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from Your Face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me."

With compassion the Lord answered, "Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a seven-fold vengeance."

Then Adam and Eve watched as the Lord put a mark on their beloved son Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him.

Eve moaned at the thought of losing Cain too. Then she winced at the memory of her own disobedience; how easily that serpent convinced her to not trust God. Could this be wisdom; to know the suffering sin causes, and to feel regret? Could the death of Abel, which caused her own heart to wither and die be her delayed death? Eve still could not imagine that someday her own physical death would occur. She only just learned that it was possibly for a human body, made in the image of God to become lifeless, and that sight alone horrified her.

Cain wept in his mother's embrace. Adam pulled her away to release their son from Cain's clutches. "Before you go," said Adam, "Help me dig a hole to plant our Abel deep into the earth. I cannot gaze upon this body any longer."

After burying his brother in the earth, Cain left the presence of the Lord, and his parents to go to the land of Nod, east of Eden.

That was the day that Eve and Adam experienced their first death. On that fearsome day they learned what death was. They thought then that being alive meant to cherish the body and time.