Noah's Wife

Genesis 7 begins one of the harder biblical texts. The task of trying to understand God's ways when they don't make sense to us is rife in these verses, in this flood, in this destruction. Often, the application taught lands on another task: being righteous like Noah.

Finally, the day came when the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous. (Genesis 7:1)

Way too much pressure, I think - both to be considered the only righteous one and to have to try to live up to such a standard. As I take on the "task" of trying to understand God I want to opt toward love, relationship, and grace...on God's part and mine. This story makes that difficult. But not impossible.

A few years ago I came across a children's book by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso entitled Noah's Wife: The Story of Naamah. Here is how she describes the story she tells:

Suppose you are reading the biblical story about Noah and the ark. You wonder who was Noah's wife. What was her name, her story? Suppose you give Noah's wife a name, Naamah, and tell that she gathered two of every seed, every living plant, and created a garden on the ark. When the flood receded she replanted the earth's garden. In imagining this explanation, you would be creating a type of story that in Hebrew is called midrash. Many such stories were told by our ancestors to enrich the Bible. In time, some of these were written down, and then they were read again and again until they began to feel very old, as if they were always part of the tradition.

This story of Noah's wife is a modern midrash. You may use it to talk about the wisdom and courage of a woman and her role in saving the world from destruction. You may want to focus on the dandelions and the importance of caring for all living things, even those we might wish to ignore. The story may be the starting point of a conversation about our responsibility for caring for the earth. Most of all, the story of Naamah helps us to pause and take delight in the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us.

"...the wisdom and courage of a woman and her role in saving the world from destruction." That sounds like love, relationship, and grace to me.

Buy the book. Read the book. And imagine explanations that enrich another book: the Bible.