Scripture: Genesis 6–8

Dear Beloved,

It’s been a while.

I’m currently in Jamaica, enjoying my time with family, but it’s also hurricane season here. I was up at 5am listening to the storm outside, and it reminded me of Noah’s ark.

In Genesis 6, God instructed Noah to build an ark because He was going to bring a flood upon the earth. And Noah obeyed.

Can you imagine being given instructions to build something so enormous, preparing for something you had never experienced before? Yet Noah trusted God enough to follow His instructions.

Then the rain came. Forty days and forty nights.

I wonder what it must have felt like inside that ark, hearing the rain pouring down, the wind moving around them, knowing that the world outside was changing. And although Noah had followed God’s instructions, he still had to experience the storm.

Sometimes obedience doesn’t mean we won’t experience storms. It means learning to trust God while we’re going through them.

But there’s something else about Noah’s story that stood out to me. The rain eventually stopped, yet Noah couldn’t leave the ark.

Beloved, imagine surviving a storm and finally hearing the rain stop. Wouldn’t you want to step outside? Wouldn’t you want to see what was waiting for you?

But Noah had to be patient.

In Genesis 8, Noah sent out a dove, but it returned because it couldn’t find anywhere to rest. So Noah waited another seven days and sent the dove out again. This time, it returned with an olive leaf, a sign that the waters were receding.

But Noah still didn’t leave.

He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again. This time, it didn’t return. And even after the ground had dried, Noah waited until God instructed him to leave the ark.

And that made me think.

Sometimes we’re so desperate for the storm to end that we forget we may still have to wait after the rain has stopped.

And this is where Noah’s story became personal for me.

One thing I’ve been learning about myself is that I’m not always patient. I act on my feelings. When something upsets me, when I feel unsettled or when things aren’t going the way I expected, sometimes I want to make a decision there and then.

I don’t always give myself time to sit with what I’m feeling. And sometimes, if I’m being truthful, I just want the feeling to go away.

I want answers. I want clarity. I want peace. And when I don’t have those things, I can become impatient.

But what happens when God is asking me to wait? What happens when the answer isn’t immediate? Or when the situation isn’t changing as quickly as I’d hoped?

I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to pray for God’s guidance but still want to take control when things become uncomfortable. And I wonder how many times I’ve allowed my emotions to lead me before I’ve given myself time to pray, reflect and seek wisdom.

Not because my feelings don’t matter, but because just because I feel something strongly doesn’t mean I have to act on it immediately.

That’s something I’m still learning.

One of the most beautiful parts of Noah’s story is Genesis 8:1:

“But God remembered Noah.”

God hadn’t forgotten Noah while he was inside the ark. Even when the rain had stopped and Noah was still waiting, God was at work.

The waters were receding. The earth was drying. Things were changing outside the ark, even though Noah couldn’t see everything that was happening.

And isn’t that sometimes how life feels?

We’re waiting for an answer, a change, a breakthrough or simply a little peace. We wonder whether God has heard our prayers because we can’t see anything happening.

But just because we cannot see what God is doing doesn’t mean He isn’t working.

The waiting season isn’t necessarily a forgotten season.

And I think that’s something I need to remind myself of, because sometimes I become so focused on what I’m feeling in the moment that I forget to consider what God may be teaching me through the waiting.

I think one of the hardest things about patience is that it requires us to be comfortable with not knowing. And I don’t always like that.

I like knowing where I stand. I like having answers. And when something matters deeply to me, waiting can feel even harder.

But Noah’s story has reminded me that patience is more than simply doing nothing. It’s learning when to act and when to be still. It’s having the wisdom to recognise that not every feeling requires an immediate response.

And it’s trusting that I don’t need to rush into a decision simply because I’m uncomfortable with uncertainty.

As I thought about that, I found myself thinking about the storm outside my window again. Because sometimes the storm we’re experiencing isn’t the one happening around us. It’s the one happening within us.

What does a thunderstorm look like? What does it sound like? And what does a storm feel like inside of us?

The light begins to disappear. The wind starts to move, and the rain begins to fall. But the thing about a storm is that you never really know how bad it’s going to get.

A storm can sound like thunder, rain beating against the windows, wind howling and things crashing around you.

But an internal storm sounds different.

It sounds like:

What if I’m making the wrong decision? What if I lose something I was meant to keep? What if things never get better? God, are You listening? What am I supposed to do?

Sometimes it’s a hundred thoughts fighting to be heard at once. And sometimes, strangely enough, a storm sounds like silence. You’re so overwhelmed that you don’t even know how to explain what you’re feeling.

It can feel like a heaviness in your chest that you can’t quite explain. Your heart feels unsettled. Your thoughts race. You feel exhausted even though you haven’t physically done anything.

You want peace, but your mind keeps returning to the same questions.

And I think that’s why patience can be so difficult. Because when you’re experiencing a storm within yourself, sometimes all you want is for it to stop.

You want to make a decision, find an answer or do something that will make you feel better. But I’m learning that not every storm requires an immediate reaction.

Sometimes I need to be still. Sometimes I need to pray. And sometimes I need to allow myself to feel what I’m feeling without allowing those feelings to make the decision for me.

Because if Noah’s story has taught me anything, it’s that just because the rain has stopped doesn’t mean it’s time to leave the ark.

I don’t think patience is something I’ve mastered. Far from it.

But I’m learning that trusting God isn’t only about having faith when He first gives us instructions. It’s also about trusting Him through the storm and having the patience to wait when we don’t know what comes next.

And maybe that’s the lesson I needed as I sat here listening to the rain.

I don’t have to make every decision today. I don’t have to have all the answers. And I don’t have to allow my feelings in one moment to determine what happens next.

I can pray, seek wisdom and give myself time to understand what I’m feeling.

Because patience isn’t about ignoring my emotions. It’s about learning not to let them lead me before I’ve sought God’s wisdom.

I’m still learning. Still growing. Still becoming.

And perhaps the next time I find myself in the middle of a storm, I’ll remember Noah. Not just because he trusted God enough to build the ark, but because he had the patience to remain inside it until God told him it was time to leave.

Sometimes the rain stops before the waiting ends. And that’s where we learn to trust God a little more.

Until the next chapter, Beloved.

— Alesia x