Genesis 7:1 to 9:8-17, 9:8-17
The Bible doesn’t name Noah’s wife or the wives of the three sons. No-namers, non-entities, not important. They don’t have any authority, so they don’t need names. But at birth, God gave the women each a butterfly line as well the men.
Noah comes into the house one day and says, “God’s going to flood the world. I’m supposed to build an ark, which we’re going to fill with animals, and we will survive the flood by living in the ark for maybe a year.”
Mrs. Noah, the woman with no name, sighs and says to herself, “Excuse me? We just built this brand-new house, with all the latest appliances, with a built-in vacuum system, with a big screen TV, with the kitchen just the way you designed it …”
(No, they did not have appliances in Noah’s time or vacuum systems or big screen TVs. My writer wrote this story to mix the distant past with the present to illustrate the enormity of what was happening.)
“and now we’re going to live in a boat?! With animals?! I think you’ve been out in the sun too long.”
But to Noah, she just says, “Yes, dear,” because that’s all she’s allowed to say. Her butterfly glares at Noah’s, who just shrugs his wings, as if “What can I do?”
You know what it’s like to pack to move? That’s what Mrs. Noah and her daughters-in-law do. They can’t take everything, in fact, they can’t take very much at all because there are going to be too many animals. And, of course, the animals aren’t part of their decision, either.
At least, they can decide what to leave behind. Their butterflies sit on their shoulders as the women go through the accumulation of their pasts. Sometimes the butterflies pass a thought to their person. Other times they just seem to sigh, like the women do.
Aunt Elizabeth’s silver pitcher? Sigh.
The art work the boys did back when they were in school? Sigh.
The worn and frazzled blanket that was a wedding gift from favorite Uncle Zeek? But it covered each of the three women’s sons: first Shem, then Ham, and finally Japheth, who drug it around with him long after the others had.
Each mother’s butterfly received the same thought: You have to take that. Mrs. Noah put it on the “to keep” pile.
How do you live without all the things you’ve lovingly collected over the years? Sigh.
And the tearful farewells.
How do you explain to people that you’re going to go live in a houseboat with two1 or seven2 of every kind of known animal and bird? Sigh.
How do you say goodbye to the neighbors who shared your children’s memories? Sigh.
The women who canned vegetables with you? Sigh.
Who shared cinnamon rolls with you? Sigh.
The friends you cooked spaghetti with for school fund raisers? Sigh.
And why should you, anyway, just because Noah decided he doesn’t like it here anymore! Actually, it wasn’t Noah’s decision.
He was always complaining about the neighbors, how evil they were. They weren’t always good people.
What reason does he have to do this to you? Again, it wasn’t Noah’s decision.
Why can’t things be the way they were before? Because things didn’t always go well.
Why does he have to be different? It’s his being different that gets you an ark to ride out the rain.
The angry women ignore everything but the sighs. After all, what does a butterfly know?
The night before they enter the ark, Mrs. Noah lies in bed thinking. Her butterfly rests on the nightstand. They look at each other.
“It’s true,” she thinks to the winged creature, “those people have their faults.” She remembers times when even she walked away from her neighbors. The vase that disappeared from her living room. The children stomping through her vegetable garden. The fire in the tool shed. She shakes her head. “They’re the only neighbors we have … had.”
Her butterfly moves closer. “Agreed,” she “hears” in her head. “They haven’t been kind to their butterflies, either. Maybe …” But that is all that comes through.
In the morning, the butterflies flew out to where the animals were gathering.
“Where’re the butterflies going?” Japheth asks.
Mrs. Noah explained, “They’ve gone out to bring the animals in, explaining to them why they have come here.”
Soon many animals appear, following the butterflies. Some march right up the gangplank, but others hesitate. Again the butterflies take charge, flying around the hesitators, encouraging them. By noon, all the animals are aboard, and eight tired flying insects perch on the roof of the ark.
A few little raindrops fall. And then bigger ones. The butterflies drop into the ark as Noah pulls up the gangplank and closes the door. And then more drops, until finally it’s a downpour. The women have found places for whatever household goods they brought. Mrs. Noah counts their eight butterflies aboard: one each for Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives.
As the days pass, Mrs. Noah fumes. Well, there are chores to do, but between chores, she fumes. She remembers the painting by Picasso that he decided not to bring. Irreplaceable! How could he do that?
She thinks of her iris growing in such neat rows. Now the weeds will get them, and, if she ever gets back, it will take her a month of solid yard work to get them into shape. She thinks of her neighbor. They had such good times together. She sure wishes they could share a cup of coffee right now. The butterfly on her shoulder does not respond.
Her butterfly sometimes huddles with Noah’s. She wonders if they are communicating their own frustration. They are as helpless as she is. Even Noah’s butterfly is despondent. Noah is determined and refuses to communicate with person or butterfly.
It continues to rain. And it rains some more. It doesn’t quit raining. And she wonders if maybe Noah was right, that this flood is going to destroy everything in the world.
When the ark rises with the water, she is glad to be inside. Some light comes in from above the walls, where there is a space below the roof. She hopes the poles holding up the roof are strong enough.
The relationship between Noah and his butterfly improves. His butterfly works to cheer up the others.
# # #
After forty days and forty nights, it finally quits raining, Mrs. Noah looks out the window of the ark. There is absolutely nothing but water, as far as she can see. No TV antennas, no water towers, not even any mountains! Noah is right. God really has destroyed everything and everyone else. They are lucky to be alive. It really was God. Noah is a fine man. Sometimes he drives her crazy, but he is good and kind. What her husband said was what God did.
“Don’t worry,” Noah tells her. “The boys and I will build you a new house. It won’t be as fancy as the one we left, but it will be better than living in the ark with all those animals.”
Mrs. Noah smiles, finds a pencil and some paper in her stash of things she brought aboard, and begins drawing house plans, adding special places for their butterflies. You won’t be afraid to come inside any more, after this year in the ark, she thinks to her winged companion.
When the water disappears and the mud dries up, the butterflies gather with their people to admire the beautiful rainbow, the symbol in the skies of God’s covenant with creation. They hear God’s voice, “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
"As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease."
The butterflies shiver as God continues, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything."
The butterflies did not wait to hear the rest, the limitations God added. Instead, they flew away to warn all the animals, the birds, the ground creatures, and the fish in the sea. Their world would change. They must know.
***
1 Genesis 6:19 tells Noah to bring two of every kind, male and female, to keep them alive.
2 Genesis 7:2-3: “Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.”