Faith is to believe in things that you cannot see yet. You don’t need faith to hear, see or smell things. They are right in front of you! The questions whether that something exists has been answered, because there it is. There is no longer a need to believe it exists.

However, when it comes to something that you cannot see, touch, feel or smell yet, our first realization is that it does not exist. That’s how human beings are. That’s when you need to gather a good amount of faith. Faith is the boat that takes you to that which is unseen, and even if you don’t see it yet, to know for certain that it exists.

That is exactly what Noah had. He had a boat that took him to the unseen flood that was coming. He believed for sure that it was coming and did a crazy thing by starting to cut down trees to make planks to build a boat.

⁷By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.

However, it’s not that easy. I see many people, very clever people, who simply cannot get into the boat of faith. They put all the empirical facts on the table to prove that God does not exist.

Somewhere you simply have to close your eyes and jump. Somewhere you have to get into the boat and hold onto the knowledge that the boat will take you to a place you cannot see yet.

The most amazing thing is that you see differently when you sit in the boat. Then you look through the lens of faith. That puts the events around you in focus and you can see that God is involved. Then you realize that God exists.

With your sight in focus, you see God in the creation. In the perfect rosebud slowly opening up, in all the splendour. In a friend or a stranger’s smile. The more you live in faith, the more miracles pop up in your life.

In the boat of faith, you really only understand for the first time, what Jesus had done for us. Then you can’t sit still. You rush back into the world of now and start doing things for others. From gratitude and great appreciation for what Jesus had done for you on the cross.

That’s what faith does. It changes your whole life here on earth. But more than that, it frees you before God and you can surely and certainly know that God waits for us with His arms open wide. Even if we can’t see it now, our boat of faith takes us there and that we know for sure.

Scripture
Hebrews 11:7

Reflection
What does your boat of faith look like?
Do you need to work on your faith?
How can God help you?

Prayer
Father, thank you for the boat of faith. Thank you for helping me believe in what I do not see. Sometimes, I must confess, I get out of the boat, and then I don’t see and believe so well. Help me get back on when I do that, Father, because without my faith, things don’t go well. Amen.