Genesis: Stories True?

Question:

In Sunday school yesterday I read to the children the story of Noah. One child stated "That can't be true that Noah was 600 years old and it took 120 years to build the ark." I told him I'd ask what it all means.

Comment:

Well, I couldn't possibly encompass the whole of the Book of Genesis in one response. Let me say in general that we recognize these great early stories—the two versions of the Creation, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, Noah and the Ark—as spiritually true, but not necessarily literally true. People did not keep accurate records, and they didn't have the precise sense of time we have today. They weren't trying to record literal history, but to communicate spiritual essence. And numbers were deeply symbolic. So we can doubt that Noah lived 600 years and spent 120 years building an ark, and we are still left with a powerful, important story about standing up for what's right even when the whole world around us is seeing things differently, for making our connection to the divine more important than anything else happening in our lives, for the certain promise that no matter how bumpy things get, the Power of God will not abandon us. No matter how stormy life gets, or how overwhelming the floods of feelings and fears may seem, we have within us the faith of Noah, and that faith will see us through.   Blessings!

Rev. Ed