NOAH'S ARK

[Of Special Interest to Children]

SIETSKE L. CURRY

Andy was not old enough to go to school, but every Sunday he went to the Christian Science Sunday School. The teacher had taught him the Ten Commandments, and he could say the Lord's Prayer with the spiritual interpretation from the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. The teacher often told the children stories from the Bible, too. Andy loved to listen to these stories, and he was able to remember some of them quite well.

Andy was a happy boy. He liked to ride his tricycle and play with other children. But the moment a few drops of rain fell, Andy would leave his tricycle and his friends and run into the house. He would close the door and ask someone to turn on the radio so that he would not be able to hear the rain. Then he would sit in a dark corner of the room and let error tell him that he was afraid of the rain.

On morning when their father and mother had gone on a long trip and he and his sister were at home with the housekeeper, it rained for several hours. Andy was so unhappy that the housekeeper telephoned a Christian Science practitioner and asked her to come to see him. When she arrived, she found Andy sitting by himself in a corner crying, "I don't like it to rain."

"I know a story in the Bible," she said, "which says that it rained every day for forty days, and it also rained at night. There was so much water that it came to the tops of the trees. But one man didn't mind the rain at all; he had listened to God, and he had built an —"

"I know," said Andy quickly. "That was Noah, and he built and ark, and he put all the animals in it."

Andy dried his tears and came over to the practitioner, who told him that Noah had "walked with God" (Gen. 6:9), that is, he had listened to what Love had told him to do. That was why he knew how much room the ark should have to take care of his family and the animals. He made the ark watertight by putting pitch on the inside and on the outside, and he put a door on the side of the ark.

When all the animals were in the ark, the door was closed. And when the rains came, they were safe and dry inside.

Andy knew that the story was finished, but after a minute or two the practitioner continued: "When we know that God is everywhere and always with us, then we close the door of our thinking to error. Thoughts of being afraid cannot come into our thinking when we know that God's love is all around us. Then it may rain or thunder, or the sun may shine; but we are safe and happy in God's love.

"The ark had to have a window to let the light in. After many months, when the rain had ceased, Noah opened the window. Think how happy he must have been to be able to see out. When we open the windows of our thinking, we let in more light, and we can see farther. The light is the truth that God and man are always together, because man is the likeness of God. When Noah cared for the animals and took them into the ark, he reflected the same love that God has for His children."

"Then Noah wasn't afraid of the lion?" Andy asked.

"Noah loved the animals. He knew that everything God made reflects love and joy. Noah trusted in God all the time. And, Andy, the same Father-Mother Love that made Noah listen is with you and makes you listen to good, and not to error."

When the practitioner was leaving, she and a happy Andy saw a rainbow in the sky. She told Andy that Noah had also seen a rainbow in the sky, a token of God's promise of safety which had given him a feeling that God was very near and that God was All-in-all.

The next evening, after a heavy thunderstorm, Andy talked with the practitioner and told her that he had sat on the terrace under the awning during the storm, "I saw the rain and I heard the thunder, but I wasn't afraid, because God was there."

Andy had opened his thoughts to the healing message, which is the Christ, and had been healed. Now when he sings Mrs. Eddy's hymn he knows a little of the meaning of these words (Poems, p. 7):

"'Twas Love whose finger traced aloud
A bow of promise on the cloud."

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