How do we find hope when all we see are the floods?

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“After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat”
Gen 8:6 New Living Translation

As I write this devotion I’m sitting by a nice warm fire blazing in my fireplace. It’s snowing outside and there’s no better place to be when it’s snowing than by a nice, warm fire, especially if that fire is consuming real wood and not natural gas. There’s nothing like the snapping of the pitch as the fire burns, or the different shapes of the flames as they leap off the coals.

Yet I can’t resist taking a look at what’s going on outside as it snows. I’ve already snuck over to our backdoor window, turn on the outside light, and raised the blinds. There is still something inside of me that hopes for a snow day. I’m finding hope tonight as I look out the window (my wife’s school is already called off for tomorrow).

I wonder how many times Noah look out the window to see what was happening. It might have been only on day 190 of the flood. Maybe there were other times as well, but this time had a special purpose. He released a raven to see if there was dry ground. The text states that if flew back and forth but never mentions its return.

How anxious Noah must have been to get out of that stinky, smelly boat. How he must have longed to put his feet on solid ground, if not a bit soggy. How his heart must have yearned for freedom.

Many days we look out the windows of our lives to find hope in the future. Noah had hope the day he opened the window and released the raven, then the first dove. He didn’t lose hope when that dove returned to the boat. Seven days later he sent out another dove this time coming back with and olive leaf. Then, after seven more days, he released the dove and it never came back.

The window through which we see the world, the window that gives us hope, is the window of Jesus Christ. In Christ we have the hope of eternal life. In Christ we have the hope of abundant life now. There are times when we look through the window of Christ but life isn’t turning out the way we’d hoped. Noah didn’t give up when the raven didn’t return. We continue to discover hope as we look through the window of Jesus in spite of our struggles.

Whatever the weather outside your window, I hope you will look through the window and see the future God has for you.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner