HeartFelt Kids Bible

God told Noah that a great flood was coming, and that he should build an ark, a boat big enough for his whole family and for the animals too. God told him how long to make it, and how wide, and how tall. Then Noah went outside and started building a boat in a field, a long way from any sea at all.

It took Noah a very long time. People came out to look at the enormous boat sitting in the dry grass, and they laughed at him, and then they went home. The next day they came and laughed again. Noah heard every word of it. And every morning he picked his hammer back up, because God had said it, and that was enough for him.

Noah did not have to go out and catch them. They came. Two by two they walked up the long ramp into the ark, the huge slow ones and the tiny quick ones, animals from the forests and animals from the hills. God brought every one of them safely to Noah, and Noah found them all a place. Then God shut the door.

The rain came down harder than anyone had ever seen it, for forty days and forty nights without stopping. Water covered the fields and then the hills. The great ark creaked and lifted and began to float. Inside it was dark and loud and it smelled of animals, and Noah and his family and every creature aboard were safe.

When the rain finally stopped, Noah waited. He sent out a dove to look for dry land and it came back, because there was nowhere to land. He waited seven more days and sent it again, and this time it came back with a fresh green olive leaf in its beak. Somewhere out there a tree was standing in the sun.

At last the door opened and everyone came down the ramp onto warm dry ground, and the animals ran off in every direction. Then God put a rainbow across the sky and made a promise. Never again a flood like that one. And every time a rainbow comes out after the rain, that promise is still there, still being kept.