Just Because: The Story of Salvation for Children Read Online Free Page B

to build. Noah
    was five hundred years old when he began to build
    the ark, and it took one hundred years to build. But
    he had some help because Noah had three sons called
    Shem, Ham and Japheth.
    While the ark was being built everyone in the
    world heard about it, and people came to see it.
    People laughed at Noah and called him names and
    probably thought he was crazy. I guess they might
    have thought this especially if it didn’t rain much in
    32
    Just Because
    those days and where Noah was building there wasn’t
    any water. It must have looked a bit silly building a
    great big boat with no water around. One day, when
    Noah and his boys were carting some logs to cut up
    for lumber, he met one of his neighbours.
    “Hey, Noah, old man, where are you taking those
    logs?” his neighbour asked.
    “I’m going to build a boat,” replied Noah, sitting
    down on the log to catch his breath.
    “What?” asked his neighbour. “A boat? Where
    did you get such a crazy idea from?”
    “From the Lord,” said Noah.
    “Who?” asked his neighbour.
    “The Lord God,” said Noah. “You know, the
    Creator of the world. He told me to build it because
    there’s gonna be a big flood and anyone who’s not on
    the boat is going to drown.”
    “You must be crazy,” said his neighbour. “No one
    believes in God anymore since that last crazy guy who
    used to run around talking about God. What was his
    name again?” His neighbour scratched his head. “Oh,
    yeah, I remember—Enoch. That guy just disappeared.
    Wait a minute. He was your great-grandfather, wasn’t
    he? No wonder you’re nuts, old man.” His neighbour
    laughed. “Wel , you build your big boat, and we’ll
    soon see if it rains or not, won’t we?”
    Noah’s neighbour walked away laughing, and
    Noah felt very sad. He had spoken to many people
    about building the ark, and every one of them said he
    was just a crazy old man.
    Over the next hundred years people from all
    over the world came to see the ark. It was the only
    33
    Just Because
    big boat in the world, and news about it spread
    everywhere. Sometimes when a lot of people were
    standing around looking and laughing at Noah and
    his sons, Noah would climb up on a high part of the
    ark and tell the people about God and why he was
    building the ark. This only made people laugh even
    more. They would tell their children Noah was just
    a crazy old man and there was no such person as the
    Lord. In all the time Noah preached about the Lord
    not one single person believed his message.
    When the ark was finally finished Noah prayed and
    asked the Lord to bring the animals. That day Noah
    looked up to see a huge line of animals coming down
    the road toward the ark. He could hardly believe his
    eyes when he saw lions and sheep walking together;
    usually the lions were trying to kill the sheep. You
    can imagine what everyone else did when they saw
    those wild animals coming down the road. They ran
    away. Those dudes were scared.
    The line of animals stretched as far as you could
    see. Elephants and birds, cheetahs, foxes, rabbits,
    donkeys, spiders, mice, cats and dogs. Cows and
    pigs, hens and horses, gorillas and squirrels, moles
    and doves, flies and bees and butterflies and many,
    many more. Two of every kind of animal came to
    the ark and walked up the big ramp, which Noah had
    made like a door on the side.
    After all the animals were inside Noah went out
    and stood on top of the big ramp. A big crowd of
    people was standing there. They had come out of
    their houses after the lions and tigers were inside
    the ark. They stood there talking among themselves
    34
    Just Because
    about what they had just seen. They were trying to
    decide how Noah had made all the animals come to
    the ark.
    Noah saw them standing there, and he decided
    to warn them one last time about what was going
    to happen. He had heard them laugh at him for a
    hundred years, and now the Lord had made the
    animals come. It was a miracle, and Noah