Many thousands of years ago there lived a man named Noah who had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.  Noah was a very good man who pleased God, but all the other people in the world were very wicked.  They fought wars with each other, did wicked things and didn't worship God.  When God saw the way they behaved, He was very angry.  And so God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all the people because the earth is full of fighting because of them.  I am going to destroy them and the earth."

God told Noah that He was going to send a great flood to destroy all the wicked people and told Noah to build an ark.  This was like a huge boat about 150 meters long and three decks high.  It had to be large enough to house Noah's family, as well as pairs of all living creatures, and food to last for a long time!

God gave Noah instructions on how to make the ark and told him what kind of wood he should use.  He also told him to put a door in the side of the ark and a window at the top.  And then God told Noah that He would make a covenant with him, this was a promise that God would save Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives.

They would be safe in the ark because God was going to flood the whole earth and every person and animal would die.  Noah started building the ark and it took over 100 years to finish, when he was 600 years old.  How the other people must have mocked Noah and his family because he built an boat on dry land and it had never rained before!

When the ark was completed, God gave Noah 7 days warning before the flood to get all the animals and food on board, and told him it would rain for 40 days and 40 nights.  Noah and his sons gathered food and seven of each of the animals used for food, and two of every other kind of living creatures.  When everyone was in the ark, God shut the door and no one else could enter.

And then rain began to fall, and it rained and rained.  All you could hear inside the ark was the sound of the terrible downpour.  The rain continued to pour down for forty long days and nights.  The waters covered the land, and the trees, and eventually even the mountains.   Every living thing died on the earth, but the ark floated up with the waters and all were safe inside.

After the forty days the rain stopped, but Noah and the animals couldn't leave the ark because there was too much water and no land for them to walk on.  The flood continued for another hundred and fifty days, which is about five months.

Wherever they looked, Noah and his family could see nothing but water.  God remembered Noah and so He sent a wind to help dry the earth.  Finally in the seventh month the ark came to rest on the top of the mountains of Ararat.  On the first day of the tenth month, the waters began draining away from the tops of the mountains.

Noah waited another forty days, and then opened the window and let a raven out.  But the raven could only fly back and forwards until the water had dried.  Then Noah sent out a dove, but the dove came right back to the ark, because she could find no dry place to rest.  A week later Noah sent the dove out again, and this time she came back carrying an olive leaf in her beak.  Now Noah knew that the waters were going down.  After another week, Noah sent the dove out again, but this time she did not return to him.

Although Noah and his family could see land around them, they did not leave the ark, but waited for a sign from God.  When they had been in the ark a full year, the Lord finally told them they could leave it and make a new home for themselves.  Joyfully, Noah and his family and the animals left the ark and went out onto dry land.

Then Noah built an altar to thank God for keeping them safe.  God saw what he had done and told Noah that He would never curse the ground again even if people became very wicked.  God blessed Noah and told him to have many children, so that the earth would have new tribes and nations.

And Noah did as the Lord commanded and lived for three hundred and fifty years after the great flood, and his family grew.  Noah died at the age of nine hundred and fifty years.  He told the story of the terrible flood to his grandchildren and great grandchildren, and they told it to their children, so that everyone would know how God punished the wicked people, but saved the good people and the animals.

God blessed Noah and told him that the rainbow we see each time it rains, is a sign of the everlasting covenant that God will never send such a terrible flood on the earth again.

God wants to bless us as well and so He wants His children to love and serve Him.  He sent Jesus to to teach us about God and to be our Saviour so that we can go to Heaven one day, and live there for ever.  I want to go there.  Do you?

God loves us and wants to care for us and protect us, just like He protected Noah and and his family from the flood.  When you go to bed tonight, remember to ask Jesus to watch over you and protect you all night long.

God bless!