This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: the ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.
Genesis 6:9-15
And here he comes, Mr Noah. His family line made plenty of mistakes, and he's surrounded by corruption and evil, but the man is still going strong with the Lord. Throughout the story he always seems like a bit of a loner - there's no account of him trying to sneak on board a few of his mates - but it's his integrity that marks him out. Time and time again the Bible shows us examples of God using 'ordinary' people, the kind of whom their neighbours would probably shake their heads in disbelief when they heard the story. But Noah's neighbours never got to hear the full story, as he and his family were the last ones standing.
And this is where we come across a few problems. How did one man manage to built a boat half the length of the QEII without a shipyard? How did one man manage to attract pairs (not herds, groups, flocks or packs) of every living creature under the son? AND HE WAS SIX HUNDRED YEARS OLD!
Why did God choose Noah? He was righteous, living a life that pleased God. But there was something else about him too: he was responsible, rational, creative, logical. He was a distant son of Adam and he still bore the marks of the true original.
We don’t all get the blueprints for our greatest adventure hand delivered from God. Most of us will stumble along, taking it one day at a time, inching our way along. And that’s OK. We don’t all have to build an ark. And none of us have to save the world. That’s God’s job. All we have to do is say ‘yes’ to what He asks of us.