Noah saw the flood before it happened.

He noted, one might say, the rapidly growing indulgence in material pleasures and expanding forms of wickedness that threatened to engulf mankind in total mental darkness. He discerned the swiftly diminishing role of spiritual values and the impending disappearance of allegiance to God, who is Life itself. Looking at his time, from a modern perspective, we might say he built the ark because he knew it was impossible for humanity to totally withdraw from God, and that a cataclysmic awakening to His presence was sure to come. Noah was led to safety, not because he got a special message from a god who helped some and abandoned others—God's wisdom and intelligence are available impartially to all every moment. He was saved because he kept himself awake to the demands of spiritual sense. The spiritual sense that maintained his obedience to God's law, in the midst of wholesale reliance on the false gods of materialism, lifted him above the floodwaters—before they rose.

The story of the flood teaches us at least two lessons. One is that regardless of how far humankind seems to sink into the mental darkness of materialism—and it does seem to do this from time to time—it can't evade the light of Truth forever. The fantasy of pretending that light is not present can last only so long, and the degree to which the awakening to light is cataclysmic depends on how deep the illusion of darkness is. The large-scale plagues, storms, wars, inflation, depressions, and famines that disturb mankind's sleep, when it gorges itself on materialism, are messages not from God, but from the false gods that lead mankind into such floods. Seeing through their message is simple and direct: Truth is—to error—a consuming fire; and, though the false gods may writhe in their death agonies, they don't have the power to put this fire out.

The other lesson taught by the story of the flood is that spiritual sense—our ability to hear God—is always available, as it was to Noah. Through spiritual sense, God is always communicating to us the understanding that keeps us safe. If we understand that we belong to God, Spirit, and "must worship him in spirit and in truth," ^{John 4:24;} as Christ Jesus instructed, then we will always be conscious of our true identity as God's spiritual ideas. We will deny the false claim that we originated in matter and are controlled by the material senses. As we fight the good fight from this standpoint, we, like Noah, will be always above the flood—never in it.

Answering the rhetorical question "Would you have me get out of a burning house, or stay in it?" Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, says: "I would have you already out, and know that you are out; also, to remember the Scripture concerning those who do evil that good may come,—'whose damnation is just;' and that whoso departeth from divine Science, seeking power or good aside from God, has done himself harm." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 335;}

As the widespread clamor increases, claiming that we can gain harmony, dominion, and security through matter, material sense calls us to plunge into the flood. For example, we may be tempted to speculate unwisely in gold or real estate while the gods who control prices are still forcing them upward; to buy what we don't need now before the gods of inflation make it impossible to buy it at all; to hoard what we fear might be needed in the future before the gods motivating international cartels take away our supplies. If we're too spiritually secure to succumb to those particular enticements, we may then be tempted to "do evil that good may come" —to concentrate on building a personal ark so that we and our loved ones can survive. Material sense may bid us desert the common good and "prepare for the coming crash," or suggest we should learn how to "profit from the coming depression." If we yield to those temptations, we place ourselves squarely within the flood—within the growing darkness of greed and fear—while believing that we are taking "good" steps to avoid individual catastrophe.

We don't need to build an ark: that plan for survival came to Noah at the time and was right for him. And he took, in a sense, all earth's creatures into his ark with him. But our real ark, our real safety, is spiritual. Part of Mrs. Eddy's metaphysical interpretation of "ark" is, "the understanding of Spirit, destroying belief in matter." In the next paragraph she continues, "The ark indicates temptation overcome and followed by exaltation." ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 581;}

No, we don't need to build an ark. But we do need to resist the urgings of false material gods by lifting thought and allegiance above their alluring arguments. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes, "Jesus taught us to walk over, not into or with, the currents of matter, or mortal mind." ^{Unity of Good, p. 11.}

Life lived spiritually will always keep us securely above the flood.