The flood was a punishment that fit the crime of humanity destroying the natural order God had put in place. God had brought order from chaos during creation, and the flood reversed this, returning the world to its original chaotic state. Even man's creation from dust and the breath of life was undone, as all living beings with the breath of life died.

God created the heavens and the earth as “good.” Clines argues (from Genesis 6) that the reason the flood was sent was that instead of following God’s way, all of creation was instead destroying the earth by rebelling against God’s way.

Part I

There are ancient-flood-sent-by-the-gods stories that we find all over the world. David Clines argues that generally these stories depict three different reasons for the sending of the flood. How is the Noah story from the Bible the same, and how is it different?

The video "The Church Forests of Ethiopia" depicts a church forest thriving in the middle of a barren land, which sparks my reflection on the biblical theme of land fertility and obedience to God.

God's breath/spirit is in all of creation, and it gives life.

The BibleProject’s heaven and earth: a commentary on heaven and earth as two separate spaces that were originally one and will be reunited.

I make an initial foray into the idea that God is "the God of life," and that death is the opposite of who God is. I look at how in Leviticus, cultural symbols of death inhibited God’s Presence from being with his people.

I take a glance at my doctoral dissertation, where I examined a passage in Malachi 2:10-16. I propose that God claims the people as "flesh and spirit," or as related to him through “spirit.”

A reflection on the experience of a friend who was diagnosed with stage four cancer in college. His suffering led me to reflect on the concept of death in the poetry of the Bible, where death is not simply the absence of life but a state of adversity and suffering.

I love life and all that it brings - growth, food, friendship, and quiet moments. I also acknowledge the presence of death and suffering in the world. This contrast makes me appreciate life's joys even more, seeing them as a connection to God.