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And the dove came to him in the evening; and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off so Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.” Gen. 8:11

It has been a full four months of life in a pandemic where life is anything but normal. Even as attempts are made to return to a work schedule or other activities, it still feels very temporary since clearly the virus has not run its course yet. Sheltering in has its benefits and its challenges and as the summer rolls on, the desire to do simple things like going to the beach or having a cookout in a park are do-able but not necessarily wise and so there is a bit of restlessness that I am experiencing while I wait patiently for this season to end. Thankfully, I can go for my morning walks and I came upon a weed growing singularly through the asphalt. At first, I started to walk right by it, but it drew me back to look at it more carefully. In it, I saw a sign of hope, a sign of survival in a place that it should not even be growing and I was encouraged to know that I too, will survive and even thrive in a season that feels as dry and hopeless as asphalt on a hot summer day.

Honestly, I have been pondering this for more than a week, trying to understand the message of this sign and late last night, early this morning I began to remember the story of Noah and the ark and more specifically the accounting of the dove returning with the olive leaf in its clutches. Most of the time, when we recall this story, we focus on the forty days and nights of rain, the flood and the promise of the rainbow at the end of the story. But there is an important part of this story that we don’t need to overlook and that is the amount of time it took between Noah’s entry into the ark and his exit onto dry ground. In doing the math of the entire story, I realize that the time in the ark was roughly 264 days. The Bible is clear in this as it gives the year, month and day of Noah when he entered, how many days it rained, how long it took for the water to dry up enough to see mountain tops, then there is the whole experiment with the dove. Even after the dove was released a third time and did not return, Noah still did not exit the ark right away. He waited on God to give him the go ahead. So what is four months of staying in the comfort of my home in relation to spending almost a full year pent up with animals and family in a large and probably a pretty smelly boat? While I am tempted to venture out, I am not hearing the voice of God tell me that this is over yet.

So how does a weed in the asphalt compare to an olive leaf after a flood? This year has been a flood of crazy situations that continue to deluge the land. It isn’t simply that we are in a pandemic, but there has been outright murder posted on social media, there have been protests and riots. The year began with the conclusion of an impeachment trial. There have been rumors of war, natural disasters, an invasion of insects and the list just seems to go on and on and this is only July. It may not be a water flood, but life has been an inundating flood that we have been watching while sheltering in, feeling perhaps helpless, confused and overwhelmed. When will it end? I don’t have the answer for that, but I have a weed growing through asphalt that reminds me that God has a way of preserving life in the most dire of circumstances and causing things to rebound and grow out of places that look like the absolute last place they should grow. The olive leaf indicated to Noah that God’s flood had subsided enough to let the trees begin to grow again. And still he waited for the go ahead from God.

Be encouraged today, that what God has done in the past, He can do again. But also be reminded that what God required in the past, He still requires today; that is to wait on Him even if it looks like the time is right. It’s not right until He says it is right. Circumstances require me to go out in a dangerous pandemic, but I use common sense, follow the rules and the rest of the time, I am waiting patiently on God to give me the go ahead to really venture out on a new dry ground that He has prepared for me. A place that will allow me to not just survive, but thrive. And that is what a weed in the asphalt means to me.