The Ark Encounter

A week and a half ago, Randy and I drove to Kentucky for a visit to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. We planned to go because my next book is about Noah’s wife, and I wanted a life-size vision of what her life might have looked like. We also considered it our 45th wedding anniversary trip. It was the first time we’d been able to get away just the two of us in a long time!

The drive took us about six hours, with time to stop at a little coffee shop in Ohio for lunch, then onto Florence, Kentucky, which is just outside of Cincinnati. When we crossed the bridge at Cincinnati, we both felt like we were back in Portland, Oregon as the bridges are so similar. Fun memories!

The Ark itself is far bigger than we could ever have imagined. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the trip. You have to take a bus from the parking lot to reach the site, but once there, you take a step back in time to see how Noah might have fashioned the inside of the original ark.

There are three stories to this massive structure. I took more pictures than I needed, but with five hours of walking, I could not stand for long periods to read all of the descriptions, so I photographed them to read later. But the visual picture I took away will stay in my memory.

Cages of various sizes housed larger and smaller animals. Jars of water and sacks of feed or grain graced the walls, and you could truly envision how skilled Noah would have been not only in ship building but in engineering and much more. He would have had to figure out how to feed the animals safely, particularly the wild ones, and dispose of the waste both animal and human. How to keep the air flowing throughout the ark, and what types of workshops might there have been? Did they have an area to fix things that might break or a library to store books and plans and all of the knowledge that would have been lost in the flood? How about tools or medicines to treat illnesses in both humans and animals? The list of needs for one year on the ark – and Noah didn’t know how long they would be secluded – was endless.

The Ark Encounter producers imagined how they preserved and stored and even grew food on the ark and the kitchen where they could have prepared it. Music and art and reading and more could have given them a way to unwind at the end of a day. Each day they had the daily chore of caring for hundreds of animals, large and very small.

I’m looking forward to writing Emzara’s story. Yes, that is the name she is given in the Book of Jubilees and by the Ark Encounter. I did not realize when I wrote When Life Doesn’t Match Your Dreams, that she and her daughters-in-law had been named by ancient texts. So I decided rather than to keep the names I’d created, to use the ones that the ancients had chosen. However, even then, I had to choose which ancient name to use because Noah’s wife has been called by many names. I chose the one that made the most sense to me biblically.

We also spent time at the Creation Museum, another five hours of walking, which my body objected to, but we managed to push through anyway! Some day I’m going to find the right shoe inserts to help me walk all day if need be. But for now, I’m not quite there yet.

Still, the Creation Museum was also worth the trip. I particularly enjoyed one of the 4-D shows that took you back to the garden, and the planetarium, which showed a spectacular view of the heavens and the distant galaxies. I couldn’t get pictures of that show as you have to pay to see it, but if you ever get to see a night sky that is out in the country unobstructed by city lights, those many stars you see cannot even compare to all that God has created beyond what our human eye can view from earth. It is breathtaking and impossible to truly comprehend.

Tiger survived without us those few days, but he is never happy when we leave him. I will say that I am glad to be home. Home. It’s been four months in this new house – almost – and when we go for our semi-nightly bike rides or see a sunset out of our back windows, I am always in awe of the fact that we get to live here. It is so different. So peaceful. I’m grateful.

Next week, we’re doing a cover reveal for Daughter of Eden, Eve’s Story. Stay tuned! And if you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, the news for most things appears there first.

Some big news is coming in a month or so, and I can’t wait to share it! Until then…be blessed!

~Selah