Have you ever been down, thinking there was never going to be a reason to hope? Wondering when the next ray of sunshine would fall across your window? I’m reading through Genesis right now and trying to understand what Noah must have felt all that time in the ark. Did he think he would ever see land again? The Bible says “The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:24). Now that’s a long time to be on a boat with a bunch of animals and (for some people) family! But God began the process of drying up the land and Noah sent out “a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.” (Genesis 8:8-11) What happiness must have been on the boat to see that olive leaf! It represented not only dry land, but a hope for their future. God had not forgotten them while they were floating day after day.
I recently received a few olive leaves myself. The first one was our trip to Nairobi, a bit of sunshine breaking through the clouds. Then hearing that a friend was coming to visit us in March/April was another olive leaf and lastly (but I know God has more in store for me!) having our daughter, Tarrin, tell us she’s making plans to see us in June/July!
Since I’ve been down lately with a lot of questions, these “leaves” came at the right time…doesn’t God always have the best timing? Now what I need to do is be more sensitive to the Holy Spirits gifts of olive leaves throughout each day.