A Man of the Soil

Thursday, December 4th Genesis 9:8-13, 20 I'm not usually a big fan of reading one verse out of context. But sometimes that's good for us because it focuses our thoughts. Sometimes it sends us into the context a little deeper. In the book What Color Is Christmas? that we offered to our families this Christmas, today's reading focuses on the rainbow promise in verses 8-13. Then it mentions that Noah planted a vineyard to prove God continues to give life. When I read verse 20 I started thinking about how Noah planted this vineyard, made wine from it, got drunk and passed out naked in his tent. In my mind I rushed to what I knew was... the rest of the story. But since I had just that verse up on my computer screen, I took a second look. Then I noticed how it described Noah. A man of the soil. I think that's a compliment. Adam was a man of the soil. God seems to be fond of men of the soil. I like Ted Johnson and he's spent many years in the soil. This reminds us of God's goodness and his gift of life, for sure. But it says something about Noah too. It says that after he did this big job for God he went back to what he knew, maybe even what he was made to do. All of humanity was gone. He had lived through greatest tragedy of all of history. What would he do? Live. Cultivate. Grow. I think farmers must be the most hopeful people in the world.