A Story of God and All of Us Young Reade - By Roma Downey Page 0,1

people inspired in me will reach through history yet again and inspire you.

Love and Light,

Roma

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PROLOGUE

Let there be light!" God's voice booms.

A bolt of brightness creates the heavens. And with that light comes wind, sweeping across the brand-new universe. Then water, seemingly endless, soaks everything.

God parts the waters, creating the seas and the sky and the land.

He decrees that plants and seeds and trees cover the land and that there be seasons. And stars in the sky. And creatures throughout the land and waters.

Then God creates man in his own image. Then woman, because man should not be alone. Their names are Adam and Eve, and they inhabit a paradise known as Eden.

All this takes six days in God's time.

On the seventh day, God rests.

God's perfect creation, humankind, becomes flawed

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by those who turn their backs on their Creator. First Eve, then Adam, then Cain, and on and on. Generations pass, and devotion to God has all but disappeared. Evil rules in the hearts of men and women. This does not please the Creator, who loves the earth and its people and wants only what's best for them.

So God is starting over. He is destroying mankind in order to save it.

It is night. A large wooden ship bobs on a storm-tossed sea. A howling wind and pelting rain threaten to sink the homemade vessel. Inside the ship, an oil lamp swings from the ceiling and lights a birdcage fil ed with two brightly colored parrots. An old man named Noah struggles to remain seated. His wife sits next to him. On the other side of the cabin, Noah's three terrified sons hold tight to their wives as the great ship heaves in the night.

From belowdecks, they hear the bellows of oxen, the whinnies of horses, the bleatings of sheep, and countless other animal cries of distress. There are precisely two of each type of beast and bird.

A geyser of water spurts through a new leak in the hull. The women scream.

Noah battles to stand and

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plug the hole. Outside the ship, a blue whale breaches. It is an enormous animal, and yet it is dwarfed by Noah's ark.

Noah is a strong leader, a loving husband, and a good father. He keeps his terrified family calm by telling them the story of creation--a story he knows well.

"On the third day," Noah says calmly, "God created the land, with trees and plants--"

"Will we ever see land again?" asks the wife of Noah's son Shem.

Noah ignores her. "... with trees and plants and fruit. And--"

"Will we?" the woman insists.

Noah's faith is at its very limit. Yet he puts on a brave face. "Of course." He continues his narrative, if only because it gives them comfort. "And on the fifth day... all the creatures of the sea... and of the air. Then on the sixth day, all the creatures of the ground--which includes us! And we were granted paradise. Amazing, isn't it? Paradise. But then..." Noah pauses and gathers himself.

"Adam and Eve threw it all away! They ate from the one tree in paradise from which they were forbidden to eat. That was all God asked. Nothing more.

Don't--eat--from--this--tree. What could be easier? Wrong choices," he says bitterly. "This is the source of

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all evil--disobeying God. That's why, with one simple act, Adam and Eve caused evil to enter the world. That's why we are on this ship. Because the evil that Adam and Eve introduced has spread throughout the world, and God is cleaning the earth so mankind can start all over." He looks around the small cabin at the few people who fill it. His story has taken their minds off the storm, and he feels encouraged to keep talking. "That's why God told me,

'Build an ark.' " Noah pauses, remembering the humor in that moment. "I asked, 'What is an ark?' God told me, 'It is the same as a boat.' And I said to God, 'What is a boat?' "

Everyone laughs. They have lived in a desert their whole lives--not much water, let alone a need to build a special craft to float upon it.

God described the ark to Noah. It would be designed and built according to specifications that God dictated. This enormous ship would hold two of each animal. Once it was complete, God would soak the world in a massive storm, flooding all the lands and killing all of God's creation. Only the people and animals aboard Noah's ark would live.

Noah built the ship, even though his friends mocked him and his