BOXES

But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.  

Exodus 2: 3

The word ark does not mean ship.  It actually means box or a chest.  Ark is defined by what it carries.  It could be the chest that carried Noah, the chest that carried Moses, or the chest that carried the Word of God.  In every case the importance of the Ark is not the container but what it carries.  In every instance it is also not the physical substance the Ark carries, but the message of the contents that is important.  It is the same with every life and everything.  Our importance is not confined to our physical substance, but is eternal in the message of our life.  In the three references above, that message is defined by words like Faith, Hope, and Love.  We should ask, “What is the message of my life, and how does it measure up to the principle the first shall be last and the servant of all?”