Enoch and Noah – Part 6

I was frightened by the big cats at first, but they turned out to be pretty friendly as long as I didn’t get too close.

Then I saw another ladder leading even farther down.

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure that this is where Papa told me not to go. But, I wonder what it looks like down there”.

Just then I heard some strange rustling around noises and noticed that the lamps that lit up each of the lower levels seemed to be out. I began to get very curious. I looked around to see if anyone was around.

“Papa will never know if I look just once.”

So, I began climbing down the ladder and I was turning and twisting around trying to see what was there when suddenly the ark lurched and my foot slipped. I lost my grip on the ladder and began flailing around trying to grab onto something when my left leg got caught in one of the steps of the ladder.

There was excruciating pain, a horrible snapping sound and then I landed hard on my back, flat on the deck. The next thing to hit must have been my head because I blacked out for a while.

When I awoke, I was in more pain than I had ever imagined in my whole life. I realized I had broken my leg badly. I couldn’t keep from yelling and crying it hurt so badly, but no one came. I was down there all alone.

I realized that my father and uncles were cleaning out stalls at least two decks above me and couldn’t hear me.

“Where is Grampa’s God when I need Him?”

I immediately felt completely alone and in the dark. Then I began to feel afraid. I didn’t know how often they came down to this level to care for the animals.

My eyes began to gradually get used to the dim light.

I began to yell again.

“Help,” I yelled as loud as I could.

“Help!”

“Help!”

After the second or third yell, there was this really weird echo. It sounded a lot like a horn of some sort.

Every time I hollered help, that strange horn echoed back to me.

After about five or six times, I tried to sit up and look around.

Through the tears in my eyes and into the dim light, coming toward me was the biggest animal I had ever seen.

It was sort of a brownish grey with big floppy ears and a long huge nose, an absolutely monstrous, grey, wrinkly body and legs twice as big around as my Uncle Ham. Just as I started to get a good look at it, it rose up its nose and made that horn sound I had been hearing.

It walked slowly over to me with its nose pointed at me sniffing me and then touching me. I was scared at first, but its touch was so gentle I stopped being afraid. It pushed at me a little bit, like it was trying to help me stand up. I reached up to feel it’s long nose and it began to pick me up and cradle me with it. I felt the pressure on my leg get less and the pain got easier to handle.

I wasn’t sure what was going on or why this animal was doing this. I looked up and I could tell the big thing was also looking down at me. I began to feel very relaxed and very tired. My eyes had trouble staying open and I must have fallen asleep for a while.

When I woke up, the animal was still holding me up. I began to call out for my father. “Papa,” I would call out. I was not very loud at first. I did not want to frighten my protector.

“Papa!”

I would repeat a little louder each time.

“Papa!”

“Papa!”

After a while, I stopped because I wasn’t getting any answers. The pain was still pretty strong and I was getting tired again. I was also very thirsty and starting to get more afraid that no one was answering me.

I was getting scared and I didn’t know what to do.

I thought about what Grampa might do and, just as clearly as day, I could hear his voice talking to me. “Enoch” he said “you just tell the Lord what you need when you need His help. He will help you. God is faithful, just you wait and see.”

Enoch and Noah – Part 5

“Enoch … Enoch … come on son, it’s time to get up.”

“Okay Mom, just five more minutes …”

“I had one more stone to roll before I would beat those town boys at their own game. I lined up my shot and just as I was about to make it …”

“Enoch, you need to get up and do your chores. Come on, son.”

“Okay, okay …” Realizing the game was just a dream; I stretched my arms and legs, and then opened my eyes and tried to focus.

The room was pretty dark, “Where was my window, my furniture … my stuff?”

Then suddenly I felt my bed lift up from behind me and tilt to my left. I quickly looked around, “What is going on? My whole room moved!”

“Huh? Wha—where am I?” I said out loud.

“It’s alright, this is your first time waking up on the ark,” my Mom’s voice again filtered through the morning fog in my head.

Then things began to look familiar, “Oh, yeah, that’s right …”

Memories of the last days, weeks and months began to flood back into my mind, the work on the ark, the fire, the townspeople attacking Grampa, the animals arriving, the rains and flooding and finally the door of the ark closing on the outside world the Lord had decided to destroy.

“Ok Mom, I’m going.”

I got up, dressed, washed, grabbed a chunk of bread from the table and headed up toward the large pen with the netting containing all the birds that came with us on the ark. I have to feed them and clean out their pen.

There was singing and wild calls coming from the top of the ladder I had to climb to get to the upper level. I really like all the birds, feeding them isn’t too bad. It’s the cleaning up after them that’s yucky.

I grabbed a couple of buckets and filled them with the different kinds of food the birds liked and went into the pen. When they saw me with the food, the sound of all the birds got so loud I nearly had to cover my ears.

Looking up into the branches of the trees my Pop and uncles had brought in and mounted to the walls of the pen, I saw many of the birds moving to the lower branches. They seemed eager to eat.

It’s a good thing I looked up because one of the birds was dropping something yucky. I just barely got out of the way in time.

After cleaning out the pen and putting out the food, I sat on the bench inside the enclosure and thought for a while. “This is going to get boring real fast if this is all I have to do every day,” I said to myself.

I had asked Grampa how long we were going to be on this trip. But, the only answer I could get from him was “The Lord will let us know when He is done out there. Just be patient, Enoch.”

So, I decided to explore the Ark.

The first thing I did was to walk all the way from end to end on the deck my birds were on. I had already done that topside (that’s what we call the top deck of the Ark where you could go outside) but, I didn’t want to stay out there because it was still raining.

But, I wanted to see everything.

So I walked and walked and walked, each day I went to a new and lower level.

I looked and looked and looked. I had never seen so many different kinds of animals in all my life. A lot of the animals were new to all of us and we didn’t know what to call them. Many had come from very far away and many were very strange.

I wanted to see them all, even all the creepy, creeping things, no matter how long it took.

One night at supper, we talked about what I was doing.

“What did you see today, Enoch,” Mama asked.

“I saw the monkeys and the antelope and the . . . um . . .striped horses,” I said.

Papa laughed and said, “Those are called zebras son.”

Then he spoke up in his stern voice, “I don’t want you going down to the lowest levels son. The big cats and other very large, dangerous animals are down there. They may be safe enough but, I don’t want you to take any chances. Do you understand me?”

“Yes Papa,” I said.

There were still lots of other parts to explore that I hadn’t seen yet. And, there were lots of animals yet to see.

Every day for several weeks I went out and looked and explored. I was having a great time until one day when I was going down to one of the lower levels where we kept the larger animals.

“Hmm, here’s another ladder going down, I don’t remember seeing this one before.” I thought to myself. Down at this level, the cages were much larger than the ones higher up.

“Wow! I bet the really big animals are down here. One more level won’t hurt …”

Enoch and Noah – Part 4

I ran to Grampa and asked what was happening. He told me the Lord had told him about the water from the sky. Grampa called it rain. He said it would continue for forty days and forty nights. All the water would destroy the whole world that we had known. He called it a flood.

Then something really weird happened. I looked out the door. I could see that the water was everywhere. It was beginning to cover our farm. People from the city and surrounding farms started arriving, and I could see that they wanted to come with us. Grampa, Pop, and my uncles came to the area near the door, and Grampa began to pray. He said, “Oh Lord of heaven and earth. You have blessed us all beyond measure, but we have rebelled against you. And because of this rebellion, you have chosen to destroy the earth by a flood. But you have also chosen your servant Noah and his family to care for the animals that you have sent to us. You have instructed me to build this ark. My family and I have done so. The animals that you have chosen have arrived. They are safe inside this ark, which we built according to your command. The rains have begun. The flooding has begun and we, your servant Noah and his family, are safe inside. The rest is up to you Lord. We place ourselves in your hands Almighty God. Do with us as you will.”

Just as Grampa finished that prayer, there was a loud creaking sound and movement by the door. It was the DOOR! It was closing all by itself! The people that had gathered on the outside began yelling and rushing toward the door, but…they were too late.

The door closed with a groan, a scraping, and finally a loud thud that echoed throughout the ark.

They were on the outside and we were on the inside and suddenly it got real quiet.

No one spoke.

The animals were silent.

Then the whole ark moved!

We suddenly pitched to the left. Things were sliding across the floor and falling. Then we pitched back the other way. Something hit me and knocked me down. Pop was right there with his strong arm and he picked me up. And then…the ark steadied upright again and we could tell that we were still moving. It was really weird!

After we put a few of the things that had slid around back where they belonged, we raced up the big stairway to the windows on the top deck of the ark. All we could see was water for miles and miles. There were just a few mountaintops off in the distance.

We were alone in the middle of all of this water that wasn’t even there just a few days ago. I couldn’t believe it. It was like a dream. I didn’t even want to believe it. I thought that I would wake up in just a minute. But…. I didn’t.

The sky was blacker than anything I had ever seen; the wind was blowing so hard it was hard to stand still. It made me feel so cold with the rain coming down harder and harder. I kept thinking about all the people and things that were under that water. I just stood there hanging on the edge of the window looking out.

I couldn’t understand why they all had to…be destroyed. That made me angry, so I went to a small place on the ark that I had discovered to hide when I didn’t want to be found. I wanted to think about things for a while.

I thought about the people and the places that I knew. Grampa was right. There were people that did really mean things. I didn’t understand a lot of what went on, but I thought that those people wanted to live that way. Maybe it was ok if they weren’t hurting anyone but themselves.

But then I got to thinking about something Pop had told me. If I make something and it doesn’t turn out right or work the way I wanted it to, I could tear it apart and start over if I wanted. He told me that was what God was doing. He was going to start over. He was going to keep parts of what He made that He liked and was going to do the rest over again. It was His choice. I repeated that to myself, “It was His choice and He always chooses to do the right thing.”

I didn’t even hear Grampa come up behind me. The first thing I knew was that his hand was on my shoulder. I turned and looked up at him. He told me to follow him. He led me to where the birds were kept. The light was dim and it was pretty warm in there. They seemed to be comfortable with that. They were strangely peaceful and quiet. We found a little bench to sit on, and Grampa and I sat there watching the birds for quite a while. We used to do that sometimes at home on his favorite bench, under his favorite tree, watching the sun go down. It was almost like old times. I began to feel a lot better and was able to relax a little. Then he scooted away from me just a bit, bent down, and looked me in the eyes and said, “Enoch, I am sure that all of this is frightening. It would frighten me too, and it might even make me angry…if I did not know the Lord the way that I do. That helps me to trust Him. Enoch, I want you to know the Lord the same way that I do. I want you to trust Him the same way that I do.”

I looked into Grampa’s eyes. They were deep and soft and loving. I knew I could believe him and trust him. Trusting God was a little bit harder for me. Then I remembered what Pop had said. He told me to trust Grampa and to trust in the Lord.

“God is faithful,” he always said, “you just obey and wait and see.”

Grampa had said the same thing many times. Suddenly, I felt like I wanted to trust him, God I mean.

“Grampa,” I said.

“Don’t say anything now,” Grampa said. “Would you pray with me?”

I looked down for a moment, and then back into his big eyes.

“Yes”, I said, “I would like that.”

“Hold my hands,” he said. I put my hands into his. My hands were so small compared to his. They were big and worn from many years of hard work, but at the same time, they were soft and tender.

He began to speak quietly, with confidence and familiarity.

“Lord God, God of the heavens and the earth, God of our fathers Adam and Enoch, Lord God, hear us now as we speak. I am here with my grandson Enoch. He is having a hard time trusting you; he might even be a little bit angry with you. He doesn’t know it is ok to be honest about all of our feelings. Mostly because he does not know you as I do. I know you are faithful and true. I also know that you love us each more than we could ever realize. Please help my grandson Enoch to know you as I do. Help him seek you and to know you as his great, great, great….great grandfather Enoch knew you. Help him to trust you and to know you are faithful. Thank you Lord, for I know you will hear and answer this prayer.”

With that, he squeezed my hands, and I knew it was my turn to talk to the Lord.

I was scared.

It’s not every day you talk to the God that created the universe, but Grampa knew Him so well and trusted Him so much I wanted to try.

I started the same way Grampa did.

“Lord God, God of the heavens and the earth, this is Enoch, and I’ve never spoken to you before because I…I…well, I just didn’t know I could. Now I know I can. I have learned that from my Grampa and I just want you to know I want to trust you in the same way my Grampa does. Please help me because I’m pretty young…and, well, I’m really new at this. Please help me to trust that you’ll take care of all of us in this ark and one day soon we can live on land again.”

Grampa laughed a little, but I kept going.

“Thank you, Lord, for loving us. Thank you for loving me and my family. Help us to take good care of all the animals. Especially help me to take care of all of the birds. There are more birds here than I’ve ever seen in my whole life.”

“Anyway, thank you Lord. Please forgive me for being angry with you. Please help me to do my part of trusting you to take care of everything else on the outside of the ark. I know it’s my job to just trust and obey you.”

Then Grampa put his big arms around me and gave me a real good hug. He looked me right in the eyes and said, “God is faithful, just you wait and see.”

I gave him a big smile and said, “Ok, Grampa, I’ll do my best. The Lord has to help me, but I will try very hard and trust Him.”

“God is faithful,” he said, “just you wait and see.”

Then he walked away. I sat there with the birds for a long time thinking about all that had happened. I felt more peaceful than before. I, somehow, just knew that things would be all right. But, our voyage had just begun.

Enoch and Noah – Part 3

Then I got to thinking about all the extra birds and remembered the big area toward the top of the ark. It was like several really big rooms without walls. We had hauled in and mounted a bunch of different sized dead trees, so they would have someplace to roost if they wanted to. Then I remembered the stuff called fish net Pop had hauled up there. He said it would come in handy for keeping the birds where they belong. That was a little confusing to me because the net stretched from the floor to the ceiling and everyone knew chickens can’t fly. But, I had lots of other things to do, so I had no time to think about that.

The next day, right about the time the sun came up, Grampa came and woke me himself.

He said, “Today is the day, Enoch.”

“Today is the day for what?” I said.

“Today is the day the animals will begin to arrive. We need to be ready.”

“How do you know that, Grampa?”

“The Lord told me, and He is faithful, just you wait and see.”

Grampa was right. Even before breakfast, the animals began to arrive. They came in pairs. Grampa had me counting them to keep track. There were lions, pheasants, elephants, tigers, cows, horses, sheep, oxen, cats, dogs, monkeys, bears, and even snakes and all sorts of animals I had never seen before. They showed up…all by themselves. Pop and my uncles pointed them into one of the many, many pens or stalls that had been built. There was no fighting. It was amazing!

As for me, I couldn’t believe the numbers and types of birds that began to show up. Pop had gotten the netting up only a day or two before, and all of the birds either flew in or walked right into the big room we had prepared for them. I couldn’t believe it. This went on for seven days. Grampa was right. The Lord was being faithful. He was bringing all of the animals to us!

While all of that was going on, Grammie Naamah, my mom, my two aunts, and all of my sisters and cousins were helping get our stuff onto the ark. I had to tell them what I wanted to bring and what could be left behind. This was starting to get a little scary. It was really happening! For a while, it was sort of like…a dream! But, now…it was way too real. How was this ark going to float with all of these animals and us inside? How were we going to take care of all of these animals?

Grampa must have noticed the way I was feeling. He came over and pulled me aside. He squatted down next to me and looked me right in the eyes.

He told me there was nothing to be afraid of. The Lord had promised to take care of us, and He always kept His promises. “God is faithful,” he said, “just you wait and see.” And then, he gave me a real big hug. I felt better.

Then I saw Pop watching us. He smiled, came over, and hugged me too. He told me to trust Grampa and to trust in the Lord. “God is faithful,” he said, “just you wait and see.”

Pop then told me I had been doing a much better job of being dependable. He was going to count on me to take care of all the birds, not just the chickens. He was sure I could do it. He put his hand on my shoulder and smiled at me. I was so happy, I felt like my heart was going to bust out of my chest.

There were a lot of animals on board. So I got really busy taking care of all the birds. I needed to care for them the same way I took care of the chickens at home. It was the same job, only it was a lot bigger than before. I went up to where they were kept to sort of look around, and I couldn’t believe all the different types of birds. I still had no names for them, but boy, were some of them beautiful. They were different shades of every color in all sorts of combinations and, boy, were they noisy! Each one seemed to be talking or singing or chattering in some way. It was noisy, but beautiful.

We had covered the floor with sawdust and wood chips left over from the construction of the ark. That helped a lot with the mess the animals left on the floor. We also had a lot of hay to use both for food and to cover the floor. That way the animals could lie down and sleep at night.

Then, after the seventh day, the animals stopped coming. It was weird after they had been coming for so many days.

Then it got really cloudy outside. These clouds were darker than I had ever seen before, and soon it was almost like nighttime. The wind blew harder and harder, and then…water started falling from the sky. I’d never seen water fall from the sky before. Then it came down harder and harder. It came down so hard we could barely see a stone’s throw away.

Enoch and Noah – Part 2

The people that lived in the city in the valley thought his warnings about God destroying the earth were the ravings of a crazy old man. One day I was in town with Pop getting some supplies and I heard Grampa’s voice from down the street.

I walked down the street to see what was going on. Grampa was standing up in the back of his wagon speaking loudly. “Turn from your wicked ways, my friends, before it is too late!”

The crowd laughed and one man shouted back to him, “Oh yeah, what’s going to happen to us. Is your God going to wag his finger at us?” Then the whole crowd laughed some more.

Grampa kept talking, “The Lord God has told me that if you all do not repent of your sins and change your ways, He is going to destroy you all!”

That same man shouted back at him, “I don’t like your tone, old man. You better stop your preaching or something bad will happen to you.”

Grampa looked straight at him and said, “I can’t stop preaching. God has appointed me to warn you.”

The man stooped down and picked up a rock, “Well, I’m appointing myself to warn you, old man. Knock off your preaching!” And he threw the rock at Grampa hitting him on the arm. Then the others started picking up things to throw at him too.

Grampa grabbed the reins of the animals pulling his wagon and had to drive away as fast as he could. People still ran after him and threw things at him. One of them hit him in the back of his head.

Grampa told me later that part of believing in the Lord was obeying what He asked you to do even when it was hard or crazy or maybe even dangerous.

One time when it was late at night, we were all asleep, and Grammie Naamah came to our house and pounded on our door yelling, “Fire! Fire! The ark is on fire!” We all jumped up out of our beds and ran toward the west meadow. We could see the glow in the sky and the flames as soon as we passed our gate. When we got there, we could see all of the lumber and supplies were on fire and some flames were moving up the side of the ark.

Pop sent me down to the creek that ran through the meadow and told me to stay there, fill buckets with water, and keep filling them until the fire was out.

My cousins grabbed the empty buckets and brought them back to me to re-fill.

I filled them over and over and over again. I began to get so hot and tired I thought I was going to die. I wanted to quit so bad. But I knew I had to keep going. I couldn’t disappoint Pop or Grampa again.

We kept it up for what seemed like hours and hours. I must have filled more than a thousand buckets.

Each time I thought the fire was finally out it would shoot up again somewhere else. I could see my Pop up at the top of the ark, pouring bucket after bucket of water down the side.

I knew I had to keep filling those buckets. Everyone was depending on me to keep them filled.

It was a long time before the fire was out. We all gathered around the ark to see if there was much damage, and fortunately, there wasn’t much. It was mostly the scaffolding and supplies that were destroyed. The side of the ark looked worse than it actually was.

We gathered around and prayed for a while, but I couldn’t help wondering why the Lord would allow this kind of thing to happen if this was really His project.

Now I knew that the people around us not only thought we were crazy, they were frightened enough of us to try to keep us from building the ark. But we just kept on building anyway. “God is faithful,” Grampa said, “just you wait and see.”

Grampa has always been like a special friend to me. We’ve done a lot of stuff together and he also likes to tell me about the Lord.

He and the Lord seem to be pretty good friends. Grampa says that he talks to God a lot. He says that God talks to him too. He said the Lord told him that the whole world was going to be destroyed because it was so bad.

He doesn’t tell me a lot about all of that badness. He says I’m better off not knowing about it. He says we can talk more about it when I get older.

Some of the boys I know have told me some stuff though, and it is pretty disgusting. Yuck! I don’t even like thinking about it!

Then came the day Grampa told us that the Lord had told him we would be loading up the ark soon for our trip in it. Wow! He and Pop and my uncles have been working on this thing for over a hundred years, and it’s really weird to think about it being finished.

When Grampa was talking to everyone about it yesterday, he told me my job would still be taking care of the chickens and “a few more birds.” That’s when he told me about all the different kinds of animals that were going to be coming with us.

I almost laughed because there weren’t any of those animals up here in the high desert. He told me not to worry about that. The other animals would come and it was my job…our job to take care of them. “God is faithful,” he said, “just you wait and see.”

Evidently the animals won’t tell God no, either.

Enoch and Noah – Part 1

 

“I wonder exactly what Grampa means when he says his God is always there and always faithful,” I thought as I lay in the hayloft of the barn practicing a new song on my flute.

“Enoch, where are you?” The angry voice startled me.

“Uh oh, what did I do now?” I stuffed my flute into a pocket, climbed down the ladder and ran toward the door of the barn.

“I’m coming, Pop!”

I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Where is Grampa’s God when I’m in trouble?”

When I got to the barn door, I saw Pop standing in the goat pen comforting a distressed goat. Then I knew what was wrong. I had forgotten to milk the nanny goats, but they didn’t forget and were making their displeasure known, loudly.

I ran toward the goat pen. “I’m sorry, Pop, I was in the barn and forgot to do the milking.” I gathered the stool, the bucket, and started milking.

“What were you doing in the barn that caused you to forget the goats…again?” he said. “Were you busy doing some work or just day dreaming?”

I kept milking the nanny goat and didn’t answer right away. Finally, I said, “I’m sorry Pop. I was thinking about something and just forgot. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

He leaned down toward me and spoke quietly into my ear, “That’s what you said last time, and the time before that.” He straightened up and spoke a little louder, “When are you going to stop forgetting and be a responsible boy?” Then he walked around to the other side of the goat, hooked a finger under my chin, lifted my face and looked me right in the eyes. “Enoch… son, you are 10 years old, and I need to be able to count on you. Please do the chores I ask you to do.”

His words burned like fire in my heart, but I didn’t want Pop to know. So I looked down again and just kept on milking.

Pop straightened up and said, “I am going over to work on the project with your Grandfather today. Don’t forget any more of your chores. I’ll check on you at lunchtime. I’m counting on you son, don’t let me down.” He turned and walked away toward the west meadow where they were building the “project”.

My hands kept milking the goat, but my eyes followed him as he walked away. I felt my throat tighten up, my eyes began to water, and my eyesight to blur.

I thought to myself, “I hate disappointing him.”

I wanted to run after him and beg his forgiveness. But I knew that the best way to get it was to earn it by doing all of my chores and doing them well. I sniffled and wiped my eyes. I continued to watch Pop walk toward the project while my hands began to milk as fast as they could.

“How could I trust a God that isn’t there to help me when I need it?”

As soon as I was done with all my chores, I decided to go over to the west meadow and watch Pop, my uncles, and Grampa work on the project. I ran toward a little hill that overlooked the whole meadow, and I lay down in the grass at the top of the hill facing the meadow so I could see it. It was huge.

It had been there for as long as I could remember. It was the biggest thing I had ever seen. It filled up the whole sky to the west and when the sun was setting, there was this huge, black outline I could see even from my bedroom window.

Pop told me God had appeared to Grampa and told him to build it. Grampa calls it an “ark.” He said it was a boat and would float on water. I’d never heard of a boat before.

At that moment, I wasn’t too sure about my Grampa’s thinking.

You see, all of my friends (and everyone else in town) said Grampa was crazy. They said that he was especially crazy to build the boat. There wasn’t any water to float it on here in the desert.

Grampa had spent his whole life here in the high desert, far away from any sort of town. Maybe he was a little out of touch with … things.

All I know for sure is that Pop, Grampa, and my two uncles all spend part of everyday working on it. It’s like our family thing, this boat or ark.

Every day I had to feed chickens and goats and milk the goats. I had to collect all the eggs. Sometimes I would talk to the animals when I was feeling lonely or when I was thinking that this whole ark thing was just plain crazy.

Grampa heard me talking to them one morning when I was not feeling very good about our family “project”. After I was done with my chores he took me for a walk to his favorite tree. We sat down and talked for a long time. He told me about how the Lord had really talked to him and that, at first, even Grammie thought he was crazy too.

The Day Great Grampa Disappeared – Conclusion

By the time old man Kenan’s story was over, I was finished fixing his cart, he thanked me and was on his way. I started off for Grampa’s friends house again. But, by the time I got there, Grampa had already gone.”

“Not again! Where did he go this time?” asked his son.

“We’ll get to that in just a minute. You see, Ezra’s wife had just died a few days before and he was very sad and lonely. So Grampa Enoch had spent several hours visiting with Ezra, just talking and laughing and praying. Ezra said the visit with Grampa was just what he needed and just when he needed it. He said my Grampa Enoch was the best friend any man could ever have. He also said Grampa kept telling him to put his trust in the Lord. Then he told me that Grampa said something strange about going away on a trip and that he wasn’t sure when he might be coming back.”

“Then what?” asked Lamech’s son.

“That’s all he said. I asked him where Grampa Enoch had gone. Ezra said that after a long day, Grampa liked to walk in his fields among the trees and talk with the Lord, that I should try looking for him there.

So, off I went, back to where the day started at your Grampa’s farm to the fields that were next to his home…you know, where the creek runs toward the valley where all the trees grow.

By the time I got there it was dusk, the sun was just hitting the tops of the western hills and I could see Grampa Enoch walking among the trees. I started running toward him. I had learned so much about him that day that I wanted to talk to him more than ever. Then it happened.”

“Then what happened?” asked his son.

“There was a strange cloud that formed in the open field near the grove of trees. Your great Grampa Enoch was walking toward it. It looked like he was walking with someone I hadn’t been able to see before. I called out to my Grampa. He turned, smiled and waved and then the two of them walked right into that cloud. I started to run faster to try and catch up but the cloud began to disappear. By the time I got there, the cloud was gone and so were they. I couldn’t see them anywhere. Your great Grampa Enoch and his friend were just gone!”

“Then what?” asked Lamech’s son.

“Then nothing, I never saw him again. Like I said before, it was one of the worst days of my life and one of the best.

It was one of the worst because of all the things that kept happening to me that kept me from getting to see your great Grampa. I only got a glimpse of him at the end.

It was one of the best because of all the things that I learned about the kind of man your great Grampa Enoch was. I have spent a lot of time in my life thinking about him and I have tried to be the same sort of man.

Let me tell you what I learned about him.

He was gracious, compassionate, fed those in need, gave freely, did not fear evil, was steadfast, and always, always trusted in the Lord.

Son, I want you to learn to be the same sort of man,” said Lamech.

“I will, papa,” replied his son.

“I know you will, Noah,” Lamech said. “God is faithful, just you wait and see.”

The Day Great Grampa Disappeared – Part 3

“Oh no, I didn’t, but it did slow me down by about an hour. After I finished my lunch, I headed over to Ezra’s house.

On my way, there was an old man named Kenan sitting on the side of the road with his face in his hands. One of the wheels had fallen off his cart and most of the load had fallen off too. He was just sitting there sobbing but, I was in a hurry…”

“Then what?” asked Lamech’s son.

“I started to just run on by, but then I thought to myself, ‘What would Grampa Enoch do if he were here?’”

“So what did you do?” asked his son.

“I stopped and spent a couple hours unloading the cart, getting the wheel put pack on and reloading the cart for the old man. I would have gotten it done a lot faster but he kept asking me questions about me and my family. When I told him who my Grampa was, he lit up, smiled at me, and said, ‘Let me tell you something about your Grampa Enoch you may not know. He helped me one time when no one else would. You see there was a man who owned a huge neighboring farm and he wanted my land. At first he offered to buy it but I wouldn’t sell.’”

“The old man went on excitedly, ‘Then one of my fields mysteriously caught fire. My hands and I worked for a whole day putting that fire out. My neighbor showed up that night and offered to buy my farm again. That took a lot of gall and, to top it off, he offered me less money than before.’

The old man continued his story. ‘I went to the village elders but they were afraid to deal with the problem. My neighbor was a very rich and powerful man and he had warned the elders to stay out of his business. I knew there was only one man in our area that would stand by me and who was strong enough to stand up to my wicked neighbor – that man was your Grampa Enoch. I went to talk to him about it the next day. After hearing my story, the first thing he said was ‘Let’s pray.’ As the Lord lives, that man could pray! He talked to God like they were best friends. I don’t remember all he said, but I do remember he asked the Lord for wisdom to help me. Then he thanked God for answering the prayer, like he expected the Lord to answer him right away! He had such reverence and confidence when he prayed. I have not forgotten it all these years.’”

“Then what?” asked Lamech’s son.

“I’m getting there! Hang on to your tunic! Old man Kenan then told me what your great Grampa Enoch did next.

‘He gathered up some of his farm hands and, along with my farm hands, set a watch over my land for several nights. They would work the farms during the day and then watch over them by night. This went on for almost a week. One night they saw some men sneaking onto my land and watched as they tried to steal my sheep.

Your Grampa and his friends caught the thieves red handed’, old man Kenan said. ‘They tied the trouble makers up and put them in this very ox cart for safe keeping while they settled the sheep back down for the night.’

Old man Kenan continued his story, ‘Your Grampa Enoch got the thieves to confess what they had done and who had hired them to steal my sheep. We then took the thieves to the elders of the neighboring village. My evil neighbor was already there, boasting about how he was going to buy some additional land soon. When we showed up, his face went pale. Your Grampa Enoch was well known to the elders of the other village, so they were eager to listen to him. When your Grampa laid out the case against the evil man he became so enraged that they had to physically restrain him. The elders heard all the witnesses, found my neighbor guilty, put him in prison and seized all of his property.

Your Grampa Enoch was a steadfast friend if ever there was one. Whenever I started to get nervous about the situation he would say to me ‘The Lord is faithful, just you wait and see!’

The Day Great Grampa Disappeared – Part 2

‘Ha, ha, ha, do you know where my great Grampa is?’

“Still chuckling he said, ‘There is a family nearby who are suffering because they were too sick to harvest on time. They have also been hit hard by some sort of blight. In addition to the grain and seed, your Grampa Enoch is taking over a few farm hands to help harvest what they can and to teach the neighbor how to avoid the blight next year.’”

“I thought that was unusual, but the foreman said, ‘Let me tell you something about your Grampa Enoch you may not know. He does that sort of thing all the time. He is always very generous with his neighbors. He says that is why the Lord has given him so much. He believes God wants him to care for others and, well, he always wants to obey the Lord.’”

“Well that made me stop and think for just a moment. But, it still frustrated me because I really wanted to find him.”

“So, I asked Samuel where he was now. He told me your great grampa Enoch had gone into town to arrange the details of helping another family that had been completely wiped out by a fire. He was going to meet with the village elders to put together a group of people to rebuild the house and barn for them. He was going to pay for the wood and other materials, but he wanted others to pitch in with labor and other things.”

“Wow, Pop! Was he always that generous?”

Lamech touched his son’s head. “Samuel said he was. I was beginning to learn that it was just the way he was. I never really noticed before, but later on I remembered some things he said, like the Lord had blessed him so that he could bless others. He also said that is what the Lord would have him to do. And he always wanted to obey.”

Lamech’s son thought about it for a minute and then looked at his father and said, “So what did you do next?”

Lamech smiled. “What could I do? I had questions I needed to ask your Great Grampa. So I headed back to the village to see if I could catch up with him there.

But, by the time I got there, he had already done his business and left. I managed to speak to the elder who was a friend of my family and he said to me, ‘Let me tell you something about your Grampa Enoch you may not know. Today, he helped us deal with a very difficult situation. Two members of our village were very angry with each other. There was name calling and a lot of accusations of cheating and lying flying back and forth. It was very tense. He took each one aside separately and then talked with both of them together. By the time he was done with them, they had settled their differences and were both smiling and laughing. They even walked away together. Then your Grampa Enoch said farewell, too, and went on his way. It was amazing!’

I asked him where Grampa had gone. He told me he was going to go have lunch with his friend, Ezra, on the other side of the village. I was just about to head over to Ezra’s house when my sister, Naomi, told me Mother wanted me home to take care of some more chores and eat lunch. My hunt for your Great Grampa would have to wait.”

Lamech’s son jumped up and said, “Didn’t you tell her you had some real important questions for Great Grampa Enoch, and you needed to go see him first?”

Lamech chuckled. “I tried to, but she told me mother was not going to take no for an answer and you know your Grandmother Lois. She can be very persuasive when she wants to be, especially with her children. I didn’t dare disobey her, so I went home.”

It was his son’s turn to laugh. “You’re right; I remember a time when I tried to do something different than the way Grandmother Lois wanted it. She wouldn’t let me get away with it. She kept after me until I did it her way.”

“That’s your Grandmother! So you see, I went home for lunch.”

“You didn’t give up then, did you?” his son asked impatiently.

“Oh no, I didn’t, but it did slow me down by about an hour. After I finished my lunch, I headed over to Ezra’s house.

The Day Great Grampa Disappeared – Part 1

I am going to rerun some of my older stories from my collection of stories. Here is the first one in my book “The Kid Inside Bible Stories.” You can find it on Amazon if you’d like to read them all.

The Day Great Grampa Disappeared

Genesis 5:23-24 Enoch lived 365 years in all. He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then suddenly, he disappeared because God took him.

“Oh, yes, I remember trying to find your great Grampa Enoch that day.” Lamech laughed and leaned back on the bench against the shade tree in his yard. “I remember it just like it was yesterday. Wow! It was one of the worst days of my life, and one of the best.”

“It was such a beautiful crisp, cool morning. I could smell fall in the air with fog still hanging in the trees. It made me feel so good I decided to run all the way to his house. I ran as hard as I could. I ran so fast the wind was blowing my hair back, and then…”

“Then what?” asked Lamech’s son.

“I broke a strap on my sandal, went flying head over heels, and landed flat on my face in an ant hill. I got up so fast those ants couldn’t get on me, but then I had to hop on one foot to get away from them. I sat down on a log and tied the strap back on. While I was doing that, I realized my knee was bleeding. I wiped it off with some grass and dry leaves, and then headed off to great Grampa Enoch’s house.”

“When I got there I knocked on the door until Hannah (she was Great Grampa’s housekeeper) answered the door. She took one look at me and said, ‘What happened to you?’”

“Oh, I was running and fell down. Is Grampa Enoch here?”

“No, he went out early this morning.”

“What? No! I wanted to talk to him about something very important and…well…he’s always here when I need to talk to him.”

Lamech chuckled, remembering his childish response.

“Well, Hannah just laughed at me and said, ‘Lamech, you’ve never been here quite so early. Let me tell you something about your Grampa Enoch you may not know. He always takes a walk down to the fields first thing in the morning. He tells me that he is walking and talking with the Lord. I know he does that, but I also think he likes to be by himself for a while before the day gets started. He is always so thoughtful and joyful when he comes home after that. But today, he said he won’t be coming home after his walk and not to make dinner for him tonight.’

That made me concerned because he never missed dinner. Something really special must be going on.”

Lamech’s son looked at his father and said, “What did you say next?”

“What did I say? I said…oh, right I asked. ‘Where is he going after his walk today?’”

“Then Hannah told me he was headed to the barns to talk over the day’s business with his foreman.”

“Well, I had my own chores to do, so I had to run back home, being very careful about my broken sandal strap. When I got there, your Grandmother Lois saw my knee and insisted on washing and bandaging it. She fussed and told me to be more careful and took a long time doing so.”

“Then, I did my chores as fast as I could and ran off to your great Grampa Enoch’s barns to look for him. I was going along pretty good when I saw a honey tree. I decided to stop for a minute and get a taste of the honey, but as soon as I stuck my hand in the hole…”

“What?” asked Lamech’s son.

“About a hundred bees came roaring out of the tree and chased me as I ran down the road. I ran even faster than I did earlier in the day. I had to jump into a pond and wait for them to go away!”

“Ha! That’s funny Pop, did you get any honey after all of that?”

“Well, I did get a small handful of honey, but I also got stung about eight times. That honey cost me a lot of pain, but it sure tasted good.”

“I’ll bet it did. Did you go home then?” asked his son.

“No, I kept going, but when I got to your great Grampa Enoch’s barns, I couldn’t find him anywhere, so I looked for his foreman, Samuel. He was busy ordering the farm hands to send some grain and seed to a neighbor.

When he saw me, he started laughing. I said, ‘What are you laughing at?’

“He said, ‘Between the drowned rat look, the bandage hanging around your ankle, and those bee stings on your face, you look awful funny.’”