Grace for the Moment
A Leaf of Hope
After seven days Noah again sent out the dove from the boat, and that evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Genesis 8:10–11
an olive leaf. Noah would have been happy to have the bird but to have the leaf! This leaf was more than foliage; this was promise. The bird brought more than a piece of a tree; it brought hope. For isn’t that what hope is? Hope is an olive leaf—evidence of dry land after a flood …
Don’t we love the olive leaves of life? “It appears the cancer may be in remission.” “I can help you with those finances.” “We’ll get through this together.”
What’s more, don’t we love the doves that bring them? When the father walks his son through his first broken heart, he gives him an olive leaf. When the wife of many years consoles the wife of a few months, when she tells her that conflicts come and all husbands are moody and these storms pass, you know what she is doing? She is giving an olive leaf.
We love olive leaves. And we love those who give them.
from A Love Worth Giving
Genesis 7-8
The Flood Begins
7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “I have seen that you are the best person among the people of this time, so you and your family can go into the boat. 2 Take with you seven pairs, each male with its female, of every kind of clean animal, and take one pair, each male with its female, of every kind of unclean animal. 3 Take seven pairs of all the birds of the sky, each male with its female. This will allow all these animals to continue living on the earth after the flood. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth. It will rain forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe off from the earth every living thing that I have made.”
5 Noah did everything the Lord commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came. 7 He and his wife and his sons and their wives went into the boat to escape the waters of the flood. 8 The clean animals, the unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls on the ground 9 came to Noah. They went into the boat in groups of two, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10 Seven days later the flood started.
11 When Noah was six hundred years old, the flood started. On the seventeenth day of the second month of that year the underground springs split open, and the clouds in the sky poured out rain. 12 The rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.
13 On that same day Noah and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives went into the boat. 14 They had every kind of wild and tame animal, every kind of animal that crawls on the earth, and every kind of bird. 15 Every creature that had the breath of life came to Noah in the boat in groups of two. 16 One male and one female of every living thing came, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.
17 Water flooded the earth for forty days, and as it rose it lifted the boat off the ground. 18 The water continued to rise, and the boat floated on it above the earth. 19 The water rose so much that even the highest mountains under the sky were covered by it. 20 It continued to rise until it was more than twenty feet above the mountains.
21 All living things that moved on the earth died. This included all the birds, tame animals, wild animals, and creatures that swarm on the earth, as well as all human beings. 22 So everything on dry land that had the breath of life in it died. 23 God destroyed from the earth every living thing that was on the land—every man, animal, crawling thing, and bird of the sky. All that was left was Noah and what was with him in the boat. 24 And the waters continued to cover the earth for one hundred fifty days.
The Flood Ends
8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild and tame animals with him in the boat. He made a wind blow over the earth, and the water went down. 2 The underground springs stopped flowing, and the clouds in the sky stopped pouring down rain. 3-4 The water that covered the earth began to go down. After one hundred fifty days it had gone down so much that the boat touched land again. It came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat[a] on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. 5 The water continued to go down so that by the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be seen.
6 Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat, and 7 he sent out a raven. It flew here and there until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then Noah sent out a dove to find out if the water had dried up from the ground. 9 The dove could not find a place to land because water still covered the earth, so it came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and took the bird and brought it back into the boat.
10 After seven days Noah again sent out the dove from the boat, 11 and that evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the ground was almost dry. 12 Seven days later he sent the dove out again, but this time it did not come back.
13 When Noah was six hundred and one years old, in the first day of the first month of that year, the water was dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the boat and saw that the land was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “You and your wife, your sons, and their wives should go out of the boat. 17 Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones so that they might grow in number.”
18 So Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19 Every animal, everything that crawls on the earth, and every bird went out of the boat by families.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of all the clean birds and animals, and he burned them on the altar as offerings to God. 21 The Lord was pleased with these sacrifices and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings. Their thoughts are evil even when they are young, but I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time.
22 “As long as the earth continues,
planting and harvest,
cold and hot,
summer and winter,
day and night
will not stop.”
Footnotes:
- 8:3–4 Ararat The ancient land of Urartu, an area in Eastern Turkey.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Psalm 3:1-4
A Morning Prayer
David sang this when he ran away from his son Absalom.
3 Lord, I have many enemies!
Many people have turned against me.
2 Many are saying about me,
“God won’t rescue him.” Selah
3 But, Lord, you are my shield,
my wonderful God who gives me courage.
4 I will pray to the Lord,
and he will answer me from his holy mountain. Selah
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Proverbs 1:20-23
Wisdom Speaks
20 Wisdom is like a woman shouting in the street;
she raises her voice in the city squares.
21 She cries out in the noisy street
and shouts at the city gates:
22 “You fools, how long will you be foolish?
How long will you make fun of wisdom
and hate knowledge?
23 If only you had listened when I corrected you,
I would have told you what’s in my heart;
I would have told you what I am thinking.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Matthew 4
The Temptation of Jesus
4 Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 Jesus fasted for forty days and nights. After this, he was very hungry. 3 The devil came to Jesus to tempt him, saying, “If you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures, ‘A person lives not on bread alone, but by everything God says.’”[a]
5 Then the devil led Jesus to the holy city of Jerusalem and put him on a high place of the Temple. 6 The devil said, “If you are the Son of God, jump down, because it is written in the Scriptures:
‘He has put his angels in charge of you.
They will catch you in their hands
so that you will not hit your foot on a rock.’” Psalm 91:11–12
7 Jesus answered him, “It also says in the Scriptures, ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’”[b]
8 Then the devil led Jesus to the top of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their splendor. 9 The devil said, “If you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all these things.”
10 Jesus said to the devil, “Go away from me, Satan! It is written in the Scriptures, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”[c]
11 So the devil left Jesus, and angels came and took care of him.
Jesus Begins Work in Galilee
12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he went back to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum, a town near Lake Galilee, in the area near Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 Jesus did this to bring about what the prophet Isaiah had said:
15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali
along the sea,
beyond the Jordan River.
This is Galilee where the non-Jewish people live.
16 These people who live in darkness
will see a great light.
They live in a place covered with the shadows of death,
but a light will shine on them.” Isaiah 9:1–2
Jesus Chooses Some Followers
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Change your hearts and lives, because the kingdom of heaven is near.”
18 As Jesus was walking by Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew. They were throwing a net into the lake because they were fishermen. 19 Jesus said, “Come follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20 So Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed him.
21 As Jesus continued walking by Lake Galilee, he saw two other brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus told them to come with him. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and they followed Jesus.
Jesus Teaches and Heals People
23 Jesus went everywhere in Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Good News about the kingdom of heaven, and healing all the people’s diseases and sicknesses. 24 The news about Jesus spread all over Syria, and people brought all the sick to him. They were suffering from different kinds of diseases. Some were in great pain, some had demons, some were epileptics,[d] and some were paralyzed. Jesus healed all of them. 25 Many people from Galilee, the Ten Towns,[e] Jerusalem, Judea, and the land across the Jordan River followed him.
Footnotes:
- 4:4 ‘A person . . . says.’ Quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3.
- 4:7 ‘Do . . . God.’ Quotation from Deuteronomy 6:16.
- 4:10 ‘You . . . him.’ Quotation from Deuteronomy 6:13.
- 4:24 epileptics People with a disease that causes them sometimes to lose control of their bodies and maybe faint, shake strongly, or not be able to move.
- 4:25 Ten Towns In Greek, called “Decapolis.” It was an area east of Lake Galilee that once had ten main towns.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.