And the dove came back to [Noah] in the evening,
and lo, in her mouth, a freshly plucked olive leaf,
so Noah knew that the waters had subdued from the earth.
The artist's rendering hangs on the wall above my desk, the gift of my daughter and a daily reminder of divine favor. Time stands still when I ponder the Noah saga in Scripture alongside our own as contemporary Christians in turbulent times. Saved temporarily in the Ark from the destruction that wasted at noonday in Noah’s time, he knew that unless the Lord further intervened he and all its inhabitants could not long sustain themselves. Dwelling in hope, trusting God, he had to wait nonetheless until the dove sent out from the Ark returned one evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak.
In spite of God's eternal promise never to flood the whole earth again, to which we may be thankful he is true, there is much in the scene that relates to our own circumstance. The seas are swelling around us as well, and our sight extends often no further than the next threatening wave. Life in the Ark is safe for the time being, but it is constricted at best and beset with crowding and foul odors one cannot escape. One hopes against hope until God decides to act.
Next to the art piece on my wall, to its left, is a harvest scene on good old earth, with stalks of harvested corn painted by Lydia Pohl against barn buildings and a tree in the distance--all signs of the favor of the same God who sent a dove back to Noah with a freshly cut olive branch. Next to the art piece on the right is another artist's rendering of richly hued autumn leaves on a clump of birches--again the gift of my daughter, inscribed in her own hand with the text of a song alongside, written by her husband from Psalm 131, a life-long favorite of mine.
Do the contexts matter in which we study and write and wait on the Lord? You bet they do. A wall is only a wall until it comes alive before you with the gifts loved ones and treasured friends bring over time, no less to us than the dove brought to Noah. Psalm 131 ends where every new day ought to begin and end, no matter where we are or what we may be facing--the sense in little things of God's continuing favor.
O Israel, hope in the Lord, from time forth and for evermore.
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