Once there was a guy sitting on his front porch, when a car screeched to a halt and the passengers yelled out the window “A flood is coming! Jump in and we’ll drive to the city!” But, the city was not where he wanted to be. He knew that once he got there, he would get sucked into it’s petty ways and would forever mimic the artificial bustle of it’s manufactured reality. “No” he replied to the carload, “I’m waiting on the Lord!”
A few hours later, the water came. A trickle at first, and then the waves started to lap at the edge of the porch. So, he moved his belongings into the attic, and nailed cross braces on the walls. He was sitting cross-legged on a chair when a boat pulled up to his second story window. “Hey! A survivor! Quick, get in! We’ll take you to safety!” They say beggars can’t be choosers, but this boat had clearly seen better days. “No thanks” he replied, “I’m waiting for the Lord to SAVE me!” The boat pulled away, but it was not out of sight before the water that had been filling the hold caused the engine to seize, throw a rod, kill the occupants, burst into flames and sink into the murky water.
He had just climbed onto his roof when a barge came by. It was swarming with lawn chairs, and people. Someone on the barge spotted him through the haze. “Dude! There’s a guy on that roof! Hey Roof Dude! You wanna come join us! This is the most awesome (*)^*(& you ever seen! It’s a great way to travel in a flood!” Umm, yeah. “No thanks,…Dude!” He shouted back to the floatilla. “I’m going to see what God has for me.” “Whatever, that’s awesome dude! On a roof! Hey, let’s go join him!” “Dude! we’d get wet, dude.” “Yeah, couldn’t risk that, dude….” They faded off into the distance. He finished tying his safety cable to the stovepipe.
He was standing on the left side of his roof to balance it, when a helicopter hovered overhead. They threw out a rope and were yelling something down. Seems they wanted him to grab the rope. He was just about to when he blinked and realized that the ‘copter was missing a blade! The vibrations would tear it apart any moment! Maybe they were yelling for help! He motioned to them to jump out, but they thought he was just waving them off. “Well, we’ve got others to save!” said the pilot, and he tipped the nose down to fly off…when the rotor hit the tail and the whole airframe shattered. The flaming schrappnel whizzed past as he threw himself flat on the roof. He stood up, and beside him a smoking turbine blade was impaled in the roof. “Thank you Lord, for saving me!” he said, looking up a the empty sky.
For a couple days, he floated on his rooftop. On top, he struggled to keep his house balanced by moving from side to side. Underneath, God guided his frail craft around the sunken trees that reached up to pluck it from the surface. And often, he was acutely aware that God was saving him, and all would be well, even if he drown.
On the morning of the fifth day, he felt a tremor ripple through his knees. The house had hit something. He jumped to the other side of the roof, and the scraping stopped…for a moment. And then with a THUD, the house stopped moving altogether. The impact made him lose his balance, his feet slipped, he fell over backwards, hit his head on the stove pipe, and lay motionless.
He saw a light, and opened his eyes. It was beautiful, and blinding. The light was at the crest of a range of mountains. He became more aware of his senses, the breeze touching his face, the smell of spring flowers that dotted the green hillsides of fresh grass, the sound of a brook trickling nearby, and a hunger…for food! Like he hadn’t eaten in a day and half. Wait, I’m not supposed to feel hunger here! His hand went instinctively to his head, and he felt a scab. Small enough that he realized he had collapsed, not so much from the blow, but from exhaustion. “Thank you Lord, for saving me!” he whispered into the wind. Then, he loosened up his safety rope, and swung into the attic where he found some peanut butter and jelly, and on the strength of that food he spent the next 40 days digging a new foundation under his house, planting a garden on the hills nearby, and catching fish in the brook. It was the perfect spot, and he was glad that he waited for God, instead of taking any of the almost-optimal options.
THE END
