Can you pass the bread, my love?
said Jonas pointing with his hand at the bread basket. Leya, his beloved wife, stretched her hand and gently pushed the bread basked on the table towards him. Sarah, their daughter was twisting the fork in her plate, with her mind far far away, not even hearing her father.- Sarah, is everything ok? [silence] Sarah...said Jonas again.
- Yes, father?
- What lands of Babylon are you streaming over right now? Let's enjoy our dinner honey, you can do your dreaming after, when you get to bed.
- Yes, father, I apologize..
- It's ok dear, I remember when I was your age, I used to dream with my eyes open for hours upon hours. You and me are alike you know?
- Leya smiled and said: Yeah, well it's not like there's much to do around this village.Turning to Jonas.Have you heard about the man who spoke in the market last week? said Leya, changing the subject and avoiding a conversation that could go downhill and ruin their family dinner.
- Yes my love, some of our neighbours were talking about it on the field today. He sounds like a proper loony basket case to me. Doomsday is coming, perish of all the unfaithful...uuuuu, said Jonas wiggling his hands in the air.
- Ok dear...the women were talking about it too at the well this afternoon and wanted to know what you know about it.
Jonah heard the village people talk about a man from the northern region, by the sea, speaking in the market about a dooms day coming. He said that God had enough of them straying from His path and is planning to wipe out all the evil from the world. By that he meant all humans except the ones that repent and follow His law. The man did speak about a solution, a way to be saved but the whom he heard this from did not know what it was exactly. He shook his head like the thoughts could be dusted away and he could stop thinking about it. They finished dinner and everyone went to bed.
He's usually an early bird so the next morning he was up right before sunrise. Leya could never wake up so early, she usually sleeps at least one hour more in the morning and when she wakes up, it takes her a half an hour more to just fully get her eyes open.
Jonas pulled on his tallit and got out in the front of their hut. He didn't put anything on his feet as he always loved to feel the dew on his feet in the morning. Each and every morning he bathe his feet in the dew of the garden in front of their house. Every morning since he's been little he knew that every morning there was dew on the ground. It was the only natural way the fields were watered.
Last night's conversation came to mind and he remembered the man saying something about water being God's punishment. The only water he knew was the dew every morning, the one in the fountains and the sea, which he never saw but was planning to before he'd hit 100.
- The people strayed form God's path and He just couldn't take it anymore.
- The man seemed to be some sort of a mad prophet, a man of God who speaks with Him and receives revelations from Him. Apparently God told him to build a big boat where he was planning to take anyone who believed what he was saying. He said all types of animals in this world would have to be on board too. Jonas though this was very funny and only imagined how the man could try to put all those animals and birds on board the boat and how big the boat should be. Enormous. The entire world was laughing at this too.
- The end this man was preaching about was to come very soon.
These thoughts were not getting out of his head even after he got back home. Why would God kill all of the people off the face of the earth? He heard some stories about God and how his ancestors Adam and Eve were walking in a great garden meeting and speaking to Him face to face. His father would tell him stories about God and how good He is, how despite Adam and Eve straying from his word, he didn't kill them as expected but only kicked them out of the garden.
"And now He wants to kill everyone? How could God do such a thing?" - he thought.
That evening passed quickly and as he was sitting in bed almost falling asleep he also remembered about his father talking about the things happening in this world and how following the garden kick-out, more and more people strayed from the law of God and started following their own path. A path of exploring their own desire and pleasure. Was this what the prophet was talking about, he wondered.
He needed to decide if he'd believe all this and if he did then he would need to do something to potentially save himself and his family. He thought it would be wise to sleep for the night and wake up the next day with a clear mind and make that decision.
The next morning, during his normal dew shower walks he made up his mind. It's a bunch of mad talk. He looked at it in a logical way and it was impossible. How much water would there need to be to kill every man, woman and child? How much dew would it be needed to flood all the lands? How would the man get all the animals in his big boat? Not happening as it was utterly impossible. He made us his mind and he won't give this stories anymore though. It's mad talk from a mad man.
A week had passed and he started questioning his decision as something strange started happening. It was midday, but it was dark outside as the white clouds he was used to seeing in the skies were turning black, covering the sun and its light. Not only that but loud thumping sounds started to be heard following lines of light from the black clouds. That last part really frightened him and everyone else in the village. In the market not even the elders could explain what was happening. They seemed to claim that God's wrath has come upon them.
He headed back home to get his family and take them somewhere safe. As he was walking home from the market he felt something touch his right arm. He looked but there was no-one there. Who touched him, was it God?
He looked at his arm and didn't see anything so he kept walking, hastening his pace. Again, one more touch but this time on the left arm. He looked closely and it seemed it was...water.
"Water?? How can this be? Water doesn't fall from the ski.. - he exclaimed while looking up at the black clouds.
When he got home, Leya and Sarah were scared to death by what was happening. Jonas was all wet from the water falling from the skies and when he got inside their hut he could see that water was dripping all over the place. The girls have placed all sorts of plates under the dripping spots so that the water doesn't get everything wet. He changed his clothes and got his family to sit at the table to calm them down.
- Jonas, what did the elders in the market say? - said Leya on a nervous tone
- They don't know what is happening, they said no-one has ever seen anything like this - said Jonas staring at the dinner table. - But we're going to be OK, I have a plan!
As he was finishing this last sentence a whooshing sound could be heard from outside. It wasn't the water drops and it wasn't the loud thumping sounds of the lines of light. It was something different.
Jonas rushed outside to see what the sound was about and at first it wasn't clear. He could see trees falling in the distance as something was bringing them down in a line but then the sound got closer and he could see a stream of water forming outside of their garden. Through all the heavy water falling from they sky, it was hard to see in the distance, but he focused on the trees falling and froze...it seemed like a...river was coming towards them, wiping everything in its path. And it was getting close. So close...they couldn't avoid it.
His heart started pounding. This was it. The decision he took a few days ago, that decision was wrong. He got back inside the hut as the big waters were very close. He couldn't believe it, but this was the end. He got Leya's hand in his right and Sarah's hand in his left, took them to the middle of the hut where everyone sat on their knees. He looked at their silent, teary eyes, and raising his head up he said:
God.... I'm s....
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.” Genesis, chapter 9
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