New Beginnings with Noah

Martyn Payne

Introduction:

Genesis chapters 6 to 9 tell the story of the great flood and how God rescued Noah and his family, along with a selection of all the creatures, in order to give them and the world a second start. The framework of this story is God's deep sorrow at the way in which death had entered into the world (Genesis 6:5-6) because of the wrong choices that human beings had made and God's decision to start all over again (Genesis 6:17).

The story ends with God's instructions to Noah to repopulate the earth and to care for it (Genesis 9:1-7), which is an echo of God's original instructions to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1. God wanted life, not death, and one sign that life will not be destroyed again is the rainbow that appears in the sky at the end of the story (Genesis 9:12-17). Indeed, even for those who were swept away with the flood there is the promise of life according to Peter's letter in the New Testament (1 Peter 3:18-20).

What follows is a selection of ideas that can be used to explore this story with children in an assembly and then in the classroom.

Preparation:

Use the retelling of the story of Noah from The Barnabas Schools' Bible, pages 16 to18, stories 6, 7 and 8.

There are other story versions in Stories to Read Aloud and Special People, Special Places, both from Barnabas.

There is also the Godly Play version of this story - see The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume 2.

You will need a small white sheet, a water bowl, washing powder, some olive coloured (possibly artificial?) leaves and a large outline of a tree, and finally some wool in a variety of rainbow colours.

Development:

1. Set the scene for an assembly or classroom session on this story by asking the class whether they have ever made anything by themselves that they have been proud of. Now ask if they've ever experienced what they had made being damaged and spoiled. How did they feel? Finally, ask if they have ever had the further experience of what they had made being repaired and mended. (In the classroom, you could play this as a game by asking the children to cross the circle in response to these questions and then stopping to hear some of their stories.)

In the Bible we read that God also made something to be proud of and which God declared was really good. It was, of course, the world and everything in it, including people. Then it became broken. What had been full of life now contained what was destructive, along with hurt and pain. Death spoilt God's world. But God longed to repair it - to start again - to turn death back to life.

2. As a visual aid for the story, use a large piece of clean white cloth or maybe a small sheet. This represents the world as it was made at the beginning, full of brightness and life. Now smudge some soil or dirt on to the sheet to show how death spoiled what was good. God wanted to start again - to wash the sheet clean, as it were.

Next arrange to put the sheet or cloth into some warm water that already has some washing powder added. We hope the dirt will begin to disappear - at least it does in the adverts!

The flood story tells us that God didn't want death, hurt and destruction to go on happening in the world. God wanted to get rid of it. The story also shows that those who trust in God will be kept safe - in this case within the ark.

(N.B. If the dirt and the smudge do not completely disappear, maybe this is more appropriate than it might seem. The original 'sin' of Genesis 3 was still in the world, even after the flood!)

3. Even when the rain stopped, the floodwaters took a long time to go down. It was a very thorough wash!

The story tells us that Noah sent out first a raven and then a dove - more than once - in order to discover whether there was life again on the earth. God was looking for life.

Life in the story is symbolized initially by a green leaf from an olive tree.

To illustrate this part of the story, invite some children to come to the front (if in an assembly) or to search of the classroom for 'life' in the form of leaves (olive ones, if possible, or at least olive-coloured), which you have hidden earlier. As they find these leaves, arrange them on to an outline of a tree that you have drawn so that this tree slowly comes to life again.

4. While on the ark waiting for life to start all over again, Noah's family would have had time to think about how spoiled the world had become and how much God longed for it to be full of life, not death.

As follow-up ask the children:

If they had a chance to start the world all over again, what would be the most important things that would be needed? In what ways would the world they suggest be different from today's world? How could they make sure that there was no hurt, pain, destruction and death to spoil this world again? In other words, complete a sentence that starts:

'My ideal/best world will be one in which...'

5. The story ends with the sign of the rainbow. Each of the colours of the spectrum could be matched to feelings, moods, objects, situations and people that are life-giving in some way. Divide the colours up among groups in the class and ask them to draw their ideas of something that is full of life in that particular colour. For example:

Red - smiling lips, a beautiful red rose, a flame on a birthday cake

Orange - a tangerine, a cool, refreshing orange drink, a bright orange kite in the sky

Yellow - the bright sun, a gleaming gold ring, the glorious beach in summer

As an alternative to drawing, have some magazines available in which the children can find some appropriately coloured real-life images to illustrate their rainbow of life.

6. For further craft ideas, see:

Bible Make and Do, Book 2 (animals greetings cards in an ark folder)

Step-by-step Noah's Ark (lots of ideas here for a whole group to work on together)

7. For a time of reflection on the story, use some rainbow coloured wool or else wools of different colours to create a web of connections between the class, sitting in a circle. As each child receives and passes on the wool, stop to think about what things are life-giving and how people can make a fresh, new start - in their homes, at school, at church and in the world; also celebrate the life-giving images that the children may have drawn in the exercise 5 above.