based on Genesis 6:9-9:17

Hello, my name is Noah. I’ve been on the ark with my wife, my three sons (Ham, Shem and Japheth), their three wives and two of every kind of land beast and bird for 371 days. Oh yes!

Let me tell you what an ark is. An ark is an enormous boat that God told me (and my family) to construct more than 100 years ago. Once we finally (after all that hard work) got on the ark, God shut the door (kinda scary!).

It started to rain, and rained for 40 days and nights while the waters kept rising for another four months. The waters took almost another three months before they started to recede.

I sent out a raven to see if the waters had gone down enough—it never came back. After seven days, I sent out a dove, and she came back because there was no suitable place to land.

A week later I sent the dove out for the second time, and she came back with an olive leaf in her beak. I sent her out seven days later for a third time, and she didn’t return.

Twenty-nine more days went by before we removed the top of the ark. When we finally got off the ark and looked at the land, boy did it look brown and shockingly unappealing but at the same time stunningly welcoming!

It was so distinct and different than before; it was like nothing (we had) ever seen. We just stood and stared for hours, it seemed. Then we went back inside the ark and went to bed.

The next morning we freed the land beasts and birds. All of a sudden Shem exclaimed, “Look! Look at that!” pointing at the east horizon. There was the most elegant, richly colored rainbow there.

While the animals ran away, we stood and gazed at the beautiful sight.