You remember hearing about Noah's Ark when you were a child. Colorful pictures of a wooden boat with a tent-like roof, smiling animals parading two-by-two, an elderly, benevolent grandfather watching over the scene with his family. The stuff of nursery walls and church preschool rooms. A nice children's story.

Is there a fact behind the fable? A real, universal flood? A real ark? I took seven pages of notes on this subject in preparation for today's message. To summarize them:

There are fossil deposits around the world which seem to indicate a catastrophic event which caused massive, nearly instantaneous death, probably by flooding. Skeletons have been found in fissures located in hills 140 to 300 feet in height, cemented by calcite which must have been deposited under water.

213 different flood traditions have been found in cultures from all over the world. While there are marked differences in the details, all record a universal flood of cataclysmic proportions.

Noah's Ark has been found to utilize exactly the right proportions for surviving such an event. The 70,000 individual animals and species on board would comprise no more than 50 percentof the available space, leaving room for people, food, and provisions.

And the Flood was clearly divine in origin and end: "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth" (Genesis 6:7); "God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded" (Genesis 8:1).

If God created and ended the Flood, could he not superintend all that transpired in connection with it? Could he not transport the animals, keep them alive, and restore their habitats when they disembarked? Could he not return the earth to its antediluvian function so as to further his creative purpose for the Flood's survivors?