genesis: chapter 7... waterlogged

Then the Lord said to Noah, "Come into the ark..." (7:1) 

According to people who study these things and like to add numbers together, Noah and family were on the boat just over a year all told. That is an incredibly long time to take a cruise to who knows where taking for who knows how long. I hope one of those wives brought along a deck of cards. Of course, Noah probably had a feeling it was going to take a while. I mean he was building that boat for years. Did Noah's mind need a year on the water in order to release the lost world? For Noah to travel from experiencing the death of everything he knew to establishing life (literally) in a new place? After being held safely captive for a year, Noah must have been overcome to simply see, stand, and touch dry earth again. Standing in the mountains of Ararat, the old world would have been a hazy memory to him after so long.

The more I ponder this absolutely monumental act of God, the more I see the wisdom in using flood waters to drown, decay, and ultimately wash away the filth that existed in population, round one. In fact, the flood was perfect. The perfect way to annihilate all the people on the earth save eight. How else could God have killed so many people without leaving a stinking graveyard lying around?

If a body is buried in a coffin deep in the ground, for example, it could take as long as 50 years for all of the tissue to disappear. But if it is exposed to the elements, it will decay very quickly. The most important factor in decomposition time is how much exposure the body has had to bacteria. Bacteria need oxygen to survive and are generally found in heavy concentrations in water. Therefore, exposure to air or water will speed up the process of decomposition dramatically. Animals and insects will feed on the tissue if a body is exposed, also quickening the process. http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/take-dead-body-to-decompose

Noah and his family had to stay on the boat that long because it took that long for the dead to die, be eaten by marine life and bacteria, and quickly decompose. They didn't have to deal with the bodies of the dead, or the stench, or even the burial, since the receding of the waters would have washed most everything away like the drain in a kitchen sink. It was perfect.

When I think about those people in the ark, and how they were forced to learn grief, and patience, and trust, and hard work, and inaction, and how they must have wanted so many times to scream, or cry, or jump over the side just to get off of there... you better believe that when I am in a similar situation- where I have to stop and wait and let go of everything I ever knew and only just look ahead, you better believe I am going to do my best to prepare, and listen to Him, and do exactly what He says to do because I want to land smack-dab on top of a mountain, too.