This is Atarah's mother's last chance to make her decision. Will she believe in God and demonstrate that belief by entering the ark so God can save her?
Or will she choose death?Deciding to live seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?
In the same way, choosing Jesus and life seems like a no-brainer to me, but do you know someone who is refusing his help? What are you choosing?
In the same way, choosing Jesus and life seems like a no-brainer to me, but do you know someone who is refusing his help? What are you choosing?
Elika’s Choice
© Jeannie St. John Taylor
“And the LORD shut him in. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.” Genesis 7:16 c, 21,22
The sheer size of the imposing structure that rose into view as Elika and her camel crested the mountain took her breath away. The ark was simple. Rough. A rounded box that, even from this distance, radiated . . . what? A Presence. A feeling she’d never experienced before. Holiness?
She shuddered as the chilly winds of fear blew across her soul.
Pulling her scarf around her, she vaguely wondered why the weather had grown unseasonably cold. Elika rubbed her arms to infuse a little warmth into them.
Reaching behind, she tugged on the rope holding her rolled up carpet strapped to the camel. Still firmly attached. Fleeing the city early this morning had been surprisingly uncomplicated. After an all-night party at Rizpah’s, Ishan had assigned slaves to escort Elika home while he remained to enjoy himself a little longer. Once at the house, she instructed the slaves to load the rug for her, and then gave them a task across the city. As soon as they left, she left. Easy. No one had followed her, and with Ishan distracted by the goings-on at Rizpah’s, she should have plenty of time to find her daughter.
She prayed Atarah was still alive and on the ark.
Would Atarah accept the gift? Could she forgive her mother? Elika ached with the need to hug her daughter one last time. But first she must reach the ark, and right now she was exhausted.
For years she’d been transported only on slave-carried litters. Today she’d chosen to ride a camel because of the animal’s load-carrying potential and for anonymity, but the constant rocking and fighting against a wind that grew increasingly stronger had worn her down. Worse, the animal, suddenly unsteady on his feet, moved like he might collapse before she did.
The wind rose before her. Buffeting her. Moaning through leafless trees and bending them nearly to the ground. Blocking her way to the ark. The sky framing the ark swirled with black clouds. It seemed to Elika the earth’s atmosphere boiled with evil, as though the very earth and sky conspired against the Presence of the ark. But until the camel actually staggered and stumbled, Elika didn’t realize the earth beneath them was undulating.
A deep crack opened with a roar, running from a small house some distance away to the ark. The crevice tore around the side of the ark furthest from Elika. The packed dirt that had supported the ark broke away, leaving struts exposed and the intact structure tottering a few cubits from the edge of the fissure.
The camel side-stepped the crevice. She urged the beast forward with a burst of new courage born of the need to embrace her daughter one last time erasing every other thought and feeling.
She clung to the camel’s neck, her pulse bouncing in her throat. As soon as the quake passed, she slipped trembling from his back and led him on foot the final distance to the ark.
A wide ramp at the top of a man-made hill led to a broad open doorway in the ark’s side. She cautiously ascended the rise, then stopped at the base of the ramp, unable to move forward.
Imagined terrors held her back. The dark doorway loomed as a gaping mouth poised to swallow her alive. The dragons Dagaar had spoken of lurked just out of sight, waiting for hapless intruders.
She shook away the irrational thoughts, but still couldn’t make herself place one foot in front of the other. She gripped the camel’s rope and stared while the truth about the One True God revealed itself.
She had determined years ago to stay by Ishan’s side and serve his gods. No matter what he’d done. No matter what they were. And now something hard inside her didn’t want to change. Some illogical thing she could no longer control commanded her to continue on the path she’d always trod. She would return to the city and stay by her husband’s side no matter the consequences. She would persist in worshipping her husband’s gods. She could not change, could not relent. Or was it would not relent? Nothing made sense. She knew that. Her heart had formed into an inflexible ball that refused to budge.
It didn’t matter.
She was incapable of stepping inside that holy place. The Presence of the Holy God, Noah’s One True God was too fearsome. Entering the ark would be like stepping into the center of a consuming fire and she couldn’t – wouldn’t – do that. She would protect herself at all cost.
With a shock Elika realized that unless Atarah came out to her mother, Elika would never again look on her face. She lifted her heads to the roiling clouds, tempted to pray to them. A plump drop of water splattered on her chin.
“God of Noah,” she prayed desperately. “Grant me one request. Give me five minutes with my daughter.”
Even as the words left her mouth, Atarah materialized in the ark’s doorway. A smile lit her face and she ran weeping into her mother’s arms. They clung to one another. Finally, shouting to be heard above the howling wind, Elika poured out her heart. She asked for forgiveness, hoping desperately that Atarah could forgive her.
“I already forgave you.” Atarah said, taking her mother’s hand. “No more talk out here. I prayed for you to come. I’d almost given up, but I prayed one final time, looked out the door and there you were. God’s miracle.” Tears still poured down her cheeks. Or were the drops lingering on her lashes falling from the sky?
Atarah tugged her mother toward the door, but Elika set her feet, resisting. “I brought my carpet for you. Please don’t hang it on a wall. I want you to spread the rug across the floor so that every time your feet touch the yarn or your children play on the colors you’ll remember me.”
The man Elika had seen rescue Atarah at Gadreel’s sacrifice, appeared by her daughter’s side. She guessed him to be one of Noah’s sons. At Elika’s instruction, he untied the carpet from the camel and carried her life’s work into the ark.
The ramp began vibrating and the man rushed back toward them yelling, “You have to come inside now!”
She shook her head. “I’m going home.”
“No, please!” her daughter clutched her arm. “The Flood is starting!”
“I’ll be fine. Flood waters can’t reach our house. I won’t leave your father alone.”
The storm noises increased. Wind screamed. Wolves howled. Somewhere an elephant trumpeted. “Please come inside with us,” the man shouted in Elika’s ear. When she again refused, he turned to Atarah. “You can’t force her! God gave her free will and you have no right to take that from her.”
Several columns of angry clouds stretched toward the earth. The man grabbed Atarah’s hand and hastened her, sobbing hysterically, into the ark. The couple stopped just on the other side of the door where Elika could see them gesturing and shouting silently for her to follow. The roaring of earth and sky drowned out their voices.
Jagged regret ripped through Elika’s soul as the door of the ark slammed shut unassisted by human hand. Separating mother and daughter for eternity. The ramp dropped away. The sky burst forth like a waterfall, and the ground opened under her.
*****
With a thundering boom! -- the door to the ark slammed and locked. The sound of wood on wood reverberated through the corridors. Wind that had been rushing in through the open doorway instantly ceased, and Atarah stared numbly at gopher-wood where the outside world and her mother used to exist. Her hands, which had frantically begged Mother to enter the ark, hung limply at her sides.
She felt Shem’s arms encircle her and she collapsed into him. Not crying. Barely thinking. Her senses blunted by shock.
“You okay?” he whispered into her hair.
The muffled clamor of a world in upheaval raged outside. While Shem patiently held her, Atarah absorbed the comfort of his arms. After a long moment she lifted her head. “Surprisingly, I think I’m fine.”
“Your mother . . . ?” Shem let the question trail off.
The rumblings and crashes outside informed them Mother had undoubtedly
died. Already. Sorrow clutched Atarah’s chest. “I’m sad she made that choice, but so grateful God was gracious and permitted me to tell her I forgave her.”
“She knew you loved her.”
Atarah laid her head on his chest again and nodded, unable to form words.
“The One True God shut the door and closed us in just Father said he would.”
“Shut us in with his own hand,” she marveled. “And he’s keeping us safe while the world falls apart around us.”
She refused to think about what might be going on outside. She couldn’t bear to picture the panic of the the people she’d known in the city. Not even the ones who harmed her. She felt no joy in knowing that Dagaar and the Nephilim would perish. “It may take me a long time to come to grips with all the tragedy, but I know they all chose their fate. Even Mahli.”
“The one you told me about? My Uncle Paseah’s wife?”
“Yes. She could have fled the underground.” The ark shifted and Atarah’s heart did a flip.
Shem placed an arm firmly around Atarah’s shoulders and they started toward the family quarters. “Also, she must have known about the One True God and the ark,” he said, “even if she only heard when Uncle’s and Father’s other siblings scorned him.”
“Do you think she understood her choice?”
“I think God makes right and wrong clear at some point.”
“But do people always recognize the choices they are making?”
Shem looked thoughtful. “I think they know they are choosing, but they may not understand the significance of the choice because Satan veils Truth.”
“Plus they sear their own consciences,” Atarah said. “Mother told me she had The Dream just as I did and she knew others who dreamed the same thing.”
“But they ignored the Truth that the Light revealed to them and you didn’t.” Shem’s eyes glowed with pride and gratitude.
The ark tilted at an angle causing the gopher wood to creak and groan and making walking difficult. Shem grasped Atarah’s hand and used the wall for support as they lurched along. “Walking around in a moving ark is going to take some getting used to.”
“Are we already floating?” she asked in amazement.
“We will be any moment. And you know what that means.” He squeezed her hand. “You ready to get married?”
There hadn’t been time for a marriage ceremony when Shem proposed three days earlier. So, because they understood they’d be too exhausted to enjoy their time together until all the animals were on board and settled, they’d agreed to postpone the marriage until the ark launched. A thrill shimmied up Atarah’s spine as she realized the time had arrived and Noah was waiting in the family quarters to perform the ceremony. “I’m more than ready.” She smiled with a slow sweep of lashes.
Emotion glistened in Shem’s eyes. “For so many years I feared I’d never meet someone like you,” he said his voice thick. “I lost hope that you existed. You’re so . . . so . . .” She could see him struggling for words. “Beautiful inside and out. So beautiful that . . . that . . .”
“Compared to me all other women who ever lived look like warty toads?” she finished for him, her eyes dancing.
He laughed, a warm rich sound that made her tingle all the way to her toes. “Yep. You make every one of them look like warty toads.” He lowered his head and kissed her. When he finally drew, back her bones felt like they were made of water. “I’ve been looking for you my whole life,” he said huskily, “and I don’t intend to wait one second longer.”
Don't miss the Epilogue coming this time next week!
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