{"id":165,"date":"2013-08-14T20:52:15","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T20:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/?p=165"},"modified":"2013-08-14T20:52:15","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T20:52:15","slug":"unveiling-the-ark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/14\/unveiling-the-ark\/","title":{"rendered":"Unveiling the Ark*"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/68.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-167\" alt=\"68\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/68.jpg?resize=584%2C193\" width=\"584\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/68.jpg?w=1513&amp;ssl=1 1513w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/68.jpg?resize=300%2C99&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/68.jpg?resize=1024%2C339&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/68.jpg?resize=500%2C165&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/68.jpg?w=1168 1168w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a>The ark is such a wonderfully suitable image for a Christian school.\u00a0 In 1995 when we started Mr Noah&#8217;s Nursery School, Dave Donkin, model maker and one time member of\u00a0Iden Green Congregational Church, made a model for us portraying Noah\u2019s ark.\u00a0 That image immediately became the logo for the little school and it has stayed with us through these years.\u00a0 Having opened a new classroom which we call \u2018The Ark\u2019, Dave has made another model.\u00a0 This time his work is in a style not so colourful and stylised, but instead it is\u00a0quirky and stimulating to the imagination.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the story of Noah and the ark has much that is clearly appealing to young children.\u00a0 Among the attractive elements are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the colours of the rainbow<\/li>\n<li>the animals<\/li>\n<li>varieties of weather<\/li>\n<li>a charming story line \u2014 we all love\u00a0 a good story.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There can be no wonder that toy arks and Noah picture books are such great favourites.<\/p>\n<p>Going beyond this, the ark is a symbol of the school itself.\u00a0 Cornelius van Til (1895-1987) was a very significant Dutch American theologian.\u00a0 He was the teacher of Francis Schaeffer and a seminal influence.\u00a0 He had a particular interest in education and wrote this: \u201cWhat an easily intelligible symbol the ark that Noah built is of the unified culture of Christians, who unify their efforts in the family, in the church and in the school, about the all-comprehensive redemptive work of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 These words are not perhaps quite so \u2018easily intelligible\u2019 to us \u2013 his writing is quite difficult to understand!<\/p>\n<p>Van Til goes on, \u201cIn particular, what an easily intelligible symbol the ark of Noah is of the Christian school as it lives by the grace of God and then unites the various aspects of human culture\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The ark is a suitable symbol because it speaks of<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Divine provision<\/b>.\u00a0 The ark was God\u2019s provision for Noah and his family and in deed for the future of humanity.\u00a0 We should regard Christian schools as the provision of the Lord for believers and for many others beside.<\/li>\n<li><b>Shelter and safety<\/b>.\u00a0 Conspicuously, Noah and all in the ark were safe.\u00a0 It might not have been very comfortable; one may suppose it would have been smelly and sometimes scary, but at least it was safe, and the only safe place to be.\u00a0 In days when our world is a frightening place, awash with all sorts of hazards and dangers especially for the young, the Christian school provides a refuge.\u00a0 It is a place where the very young, and those who are young but regard themselves as worldly-wise (adolescents), can be protected from moral and spiritual threats.<\/li>\n<li><b>a distinctive culture<\/b>.\u00a0 This is the main thrust of what van Til says.\u00a0 There is a completely different culture in the ark in comparison with that among those who remain outside.\u00a0 The whole worldview is markedly different. Those outside are careless concerning the impending disaster and content to go on as if there were no moral and spiritual issue to be faced.\u00a0 Those in the ark, even if they are not personally committed to God, even if they are full of doubt about Him and the future, they are under the banner of the Judge and Redeemer.\u00a0 The prevailing ethos focuses on a new start that excludes violence and yields to the Lordship of God.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At Mr Noah\u2019s Nursery School a deliberately Christian culture is expressed in the stated values:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Loving one another.<\/li>\n<li>gentle Living<\/li>\n<li>Learning together<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is not imagined that Christians have a monopoly of these aspirations, but these three certainly represent core Biblical ideals.\u00a0 Everyone knows that love is the duty of Christians; men are represented in Scripture as having responsibility to look after the world and to handle it as careful stewards; we are called to be <i>disciples <\/i>\u2014 the very word means <i>learners<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Then let us return to the story-line of the ark\u2019s journey.\u00a0 The ark is a perfect vehicle for the Christian message.\u00a0 All the essential elements of the gospel are present.\u00a0 There is sin, judgment, and destruction and salvation. There is revelation and covenant.\u00a0 Children who engage with the narrative imbibe the categories and concepts of Christianity.\u00a0 A great obstacle to our contemporaries receiving the gospel is that the very thought patterns are foreign and as incomprehensible as an unfamiliar language.\u00a0 C S Lewis said that his purpose in writing the <i>Chronicles of Narnia<\/i> was that children who heard them read, or who read them for themselves, would become familiar with the themes of good and evil, victory and defeat, justice and mercy, and even of Christ and the devil, so that later in life, hearing the gospel, they would recognise all these things.\u00a0 The story of Noah and the ark introduces the Christian gospel in bold symbolic form in precisely the same way.<\/p>\n<p>*<i>This is the substance of the address given at the Mr Noah\u2019s Nursery School AGM on 6<sup>th<\/sup> June 2013 when Dave Donkin\u2019s beautiful and provocatively quirky model of the ark was unveiled.\u00a0 This fascinating ornament sits in the centre of the room as a label, the room being named \u2018The Ark\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ark is such a wonderfully suitable image for a Christian school.\u00a0 In 1995 when we started Mr Noah&#8217;s Nursery School, Dave Donkin, model maker and one time member of\u00a0Iden Green Congregational Church, made a model for us portraying Noah\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/14\/unveiling-the-ark\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nursery-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2d1Zf-2F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopher-ark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}