Genesis 6:9  This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. (NLT)

Genesis 8:15, 16  Then God said to Noah, “Leave the boat, all of you—you and your wife, and your sons and their wives.” (NLT)

—

Noah “walked in close fellowship with God.” 

This is a good line for your tombstone: “_____ walked in close fellowship with God.” _ Abraham’s epitaph is pretty good, too: “Friend of God.” (See James 2:23.) Each of these is better than the tombstone that says, “I told you I was sick.”

Noah, we read, “was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time.” Those who study the original languages of the Bible help us understand how a word like “blameless” can be attached to people like Noah and Abraham when we see how they were in no manner sinlessly perfect. 

For example, Abraham told people his wife was his sister. This was half true and a doubly big lie that caused more than a bit of trouble, and more than once. (See Genesis 12 and 20.) 

Noah was ready for a drink after spending a year on a boat with his family, a whole herd of animals, and an aviary full of fine, feathered friends. He planted a vineyard. He watched the vines grow. He waited on the grapes. He squeezed the juice from the grapes and placed it in containers to allow fermentation to take place. Then, when he could wait no longer, he popped a cork, so to speak, and guzzled enough to lay himself low.

The Only Blameless Person became so drunk he didn’t know what happened next. His drunkenness and his son’s misbehavior led to the same problems that happened before the flood. The blameless man became blameworthy. He failed the test of perfection. 

The word translated “blameless” here and in Abraham’s story indicates a person’s habitual nature. We see the exceptions from blamelessness in both Noah and Abraham. The Bible is honest, truthful, and clear about this. The Bible also clearly declares how these two men, and other women and men like them, stand out as bright lights in the dark times in which they lived. 

What is your habitual nature? If someone wrote your life story in an epitaph like those above, how would they capture your essence? 

Noah and Abraham were imperfect souls like you and me. Their failures stand out like ink blots on a white dress shirt. The consistency and duration of their walk with God testify that no sin is too big for God to forgive and redeem. God’s grace and mercy can turn even the most painful past into a special future. 

Yesterday, four high-capacity leaders shared their life stories. There were some hard things to say, remember, and hear. The defining reality of the conversation was, however, all about God’s grace, mercy, goodness, and kindness in taking broken people, healing their hurts, and using them to bring healing, hope, and help to many others. 

Some years ago, we heard even harder stories and even more amazing grace in one of the prison units in Huntsville, Texas. In cages no bigger than old-style phone booths, two men who were once mortal enemies sang God’s praise and told how they worked together to bring other prisoners to the place of grace. 

You are not beyond God’s reach. You are not beyond redemption. God loves you to the uttermost. He is proud to be called your Father, and he is waiting for you to come home. He is preparing a party for all of his wayward daughters and sons, just like in the story of the prodigal in Luke 15. Heaven begins with a party. It’s a party for everyone who took that first step toward home and discovered how God runs faster toward us than we walk toward him.

Noah walked in close fellowship with God.

Abraham walked in close fellowship with God.

(Your name here) walked in close fellowship with God. 

No matter how long or short the rest of your journey is, when you walk with God, it will be the best part of your journey, and it will lead you right where you always wanted to be. There is grace greater than all your sin there. There is love more peaceful and joyful than you have ever known there. There is the deepest satisfaction of all the true longings of your heart.

—

I will walk in close fellowship with God.

—

Our Father, thank you for inviting us into close fellowship with you. Adam and Eve walked with you until they didn’t. Even then, you made a way for them to get back in step with you. Enoch walked with you until you two safely arrived home. Noah and Abraham walked with you blamelessly but not perfectly. Thank you for knowing all about our imperfections and still inviting us into the perfect peace of your presence now and forever. We will walk in close fellowship with you. Amen.