The Loud Ark - Chapter 4: Pop Pop's Story
"Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways."
That morning everyone was eating breakfast. Pop-Pop came over with Myrtle to join in except Lincoln who can't take his mind off his head of the vision last night. What could it mean? Was Aslan trying to speak to him? What should he do? Then the voice of his mom snapped him out of it. "Lincoln?"
"You barely touched your food, is everything okay?" Rita asked.
"Lincoln had a bad dream and doesn't want to talk about it," Lori replied as Lynn Sr. turned to his son,
"What seems to be the matter kiddo?" said Lynn Sr.
Lincoln sighed and said, "Aslan is angry with the world and wants to destroy it."
"What?!" Gasped the parents.
"You have just been having a nightmare, Lincoln." Lynn Sr. said as he comforted him.
"It was no nightmare it was real and Pop-Pop once told me that one day because people have become sinful, wicked, and evil they will all be destroyed," replied Lincoln.
"Lincoln, that was no dream or nightmare, you were given a vision." Said, Albert.
"Huh? What? A vision?!" everyone asked.
"It must be Aslan trying to speak to you, is it true?" Asked Albert Loud.
"It is true; I saw it all in a dream, only to awake and see it will soon be real." Said Lincoln "I saw our home, this place, and then the world crumble beneath God's judgment for our sins."
"I kinda find that illogical, I think I should update the Dream Machine to include visions," said Lisa.
"You have been given a vision, maybe I could help?" added Lucy. "Is that vision telling you to do something?"
"There must be; in my vision, amongst all the dead, I was alive. He wants me to survive, but how?" asked Lincoln before Albert spoke up.
"He is speaking to you, Lincoln. You must trust he speaks to you in a way that you can understand! You saw our home and the Earth being destroyed in the fire of judgment?" replied Albert.
"It was more like water." Said Silvermist.
"Yes, Aslan is gonna judge the world with water," said Lincoln.
"Water? We only got mist and fog to water the plants in the land, I mean water coming out of nowhere?" added Lynn Sr.
"I think you are dreaming of a flood dear?" said Rita before her father asked.
"Water...huh! My father said it would be fire," replied Albert.
"It was a flood. It covered the whole world, snuffing out all life." Lincoln cried out.
"Well then, this changes things," Albert said.
"Could there still be a way to stop it? Maybe change his mind?" Lincoln pleaded.
"I am afraid we cannot change His mind," said Albert. "But, perhaps...you may be able to pull through what is coming...If the Creator indeed wishes for you to survive."
"He does want me to live! I saw it! I was alive, even when all else was dead!" replied Lincoln.
Lincoln began to feel a bit of hope for the situation but was still clueless and asked, "What should I do? How did this happen?"
"Yeah, It has gone far enough, I've had it with these greedy people mocking my jokes." Exclaimed Luan.
"I agree with you, Why can't everyone have a heart like us?" replied Lana.
"They are just so, evil, so, so…" added Lori.
"Cruel?" Lola asked.
"Yeah, thank you," replied Lori.
"I know right? So bad," said Leni. "I wish there was still hope in this world?"
"Don't worry, Those cruel and sinful people will receive their Punishment," added Lucy.
"Well, you know what they say, "Be careful what you wish for," replied Lisa.
"I know how you all feel about the world. All it is nothing, but greed and violence, surely god knows how he must be feeling." Said Albert. "I'm afraid God is very upset about all the wickedness of the earth. There is a story to this, it is the first story my father told me, and the first story that I told each of you."
"Can you tell us? Tell us the story please?" Said the fairies and kids.
"What do you think Albert?" Said Myrtle.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you all the story. Now where to start," said Albert as he turned off the lights in the room to set the mood Albert turned off his flashlight and began to narrate.
. . . . .
"In the beginning, there was nothing. Nothing, but the silence of an infinite darkness. But the breath of The Creator fluttered against the face of the void, whispering, "Let there be light."
As Albert narrated then light appeared in the universe.
"And light was. And it was good. The first day."
Then the Milky Way galaxy was created,
"And then the formless light began to take on substance and shape. A second day. And our world was born. Our beautiful, fragile home. And a great, warming light nurtured its days."
Soon the asteroid belt, the planets of the solar system, the sun, and the stars were made, and the planet Earth was formed. Then an ancient planet called Thea collided with the Earth forming the Earth with the essential elements to create life as a portion of Thea became the moon. The earth was currently a black lava field with volcanoes and asteroids hitting the planet.
"And a lesser light ruled the nights. And there was evening. And morning. Another day."
"And the waters of the world gathered together," Soon water appeared on the earth as the volcanic landscape slowly disappeared and the land was formed. Even snow appeared on the mountains after an ice-cold phase.
"And in their midst emerged dry land. Another day passed."
"And the ground put forth the growing things. A thick blanket of green stretching across all Creation." Soon the algae and plants started to grow from grass, flowers, ferns, bushes, shrubs, and mighty trees filling the empty landscape and bringing oxygen to the earth.
"And the waters, too, teemed with life. Great creatures of the deep that are no more."
Soon the first animals appeared in the water whether freshwater or saltwater starting from microscopic bacterial cells, microorganisms like plankton, crustaceans like crabs, lobsters, shrimps, corals, sea anemones, jellyfish, Mollusks like clams, mussels, scallops, slugs, snails, octopus, squid, cuttlefish, nautilus, and sea stars, sea sponges, corals, fishes like reef fish, rays, tuna, swordfish, sharks, groupers, barracuda, schooling fish, sea snakes, sea turtles, marine reptiles, and marine mammals like dolphins, whales, porpoises, and manatees as they appear on the earth.
"Vast multitudes of fish, some of which may still swim beneath these seas."
"And soon the sky was streaming with birds."
Then birds appeared in the skies, songbirds, crows, ravens, birds of paradises, peafowls, turkeys, pigeons, doves, eagles, falcons, hawks, vultures, quails, pheasants, pelicans, gulls, ducks, geese, swan, osprey, kestrels, owls, wading birds, flamingos, cranes, and flamingos and on the land penguins, kiwis, ostriches, cassowaries, emus, and rheas as they run across the land.
"And there was evening. And there was morning. A fifth day."
"Now the whole world. was full of living beings."
Now the earth was filled with animals, invertebrates like ants, bees, spiders, dragonflies, centipedes, millipedes, snails, slugs, pillbugs, praying mantises, ladybugs, fireflies, scorpions, cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles, flies, mosquitoes, mayflies, damselflies, wasps, hornets, tarantulas, ticks, mites, springtails, silverfish, and termites. Then the first land vertebrate crawled out of the water and onto land. The first group was amphibians like frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and caecilians, and reptiles like crocodiles, alligators, snakes, turtles, tortoises, tuataras, and lizards eventually the mighty giant creatures the dinosaurs and pterosaurs appeared.
"Everything that creeps, everything that crawls, and every beast that walks upon the ground. And it was good. It was all good."
Lastly were the mammals, shrews, hedgehogs, pangolins, aardvarks, moles, elephant shrews, elephants, mammoths, hoofed animals like deer, antelopes, camels, hippos, rhinos, buffaloes, bison, cattle, horses, zebras, donkeys, peccaries, goats, sheep, pigs, warthogs, and tapirs, anteaters, armadillos, sloths, seals, sea lions, walruses, kangaroos, wombats, koalas, Tasmanian devils, wallabies, opossums, quolls, bilbies, bandicoots, possums, mice, rats, guinea pigs, maras, capybaras, beavers, chinchillas, and porcupines.
"There was light and air and water and soil, all clean and unspoiled."
Then other mammals appeared from rabbits, hares, pikas, weasels, ferrets, wolverines, badgers, otters, stoats, martens, cats, cheetahs, cougars, leopards, jaguars, wildcats, lions, tigers, bears, dogs, wolves, dingoes, foxes, coyotes, jackals, hyenas, bushbabies, pottos, slow lorises, lemurs, monkeys, macaques, langurs, gibbons, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas.
"There were plants and fish and fowl and beast, each after their own kind. All part of the greater whole. All in their place. And all was in balance. It was paradise. A jewel in The Creator's palm."
To complete his creation, God created the first man and woman.
"Then The Creator made Man. And by his side, Woman. Father and mother of us all. Their names were Adam and Eve who lived in paradise in the Garden of Eden. He gave them a choice. Follow the temptation of darkness or hold on to the blessing of light."
The first humans wandered through the Garden of Eden among the plants and animals.
"Meanwhile in the heavens, one of God's angels thought he should be greater and more powerful than god, he led a rebellion to attack heaven."
Shows the angel leading his army to attack heaven as they battled Michael and the army of the lord.
"But Michael was able to defeat him and his army. So he cast him and his followers out of heaven."
Adam, Eve, and the animals looked up to see the fallen angels hurling down like asteroids and the former angel landed on the earth as he slowly got up bent with revenge.
"Thus Satan was born."
"As revenge for being expelled from heaven, he transformed into a serpent and tempted great mother Eve into eating the forbidden fruit."
Eve sees the serpent who is Satan in disguise convincing her to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil proving she and Adam would be powerful and knowing like god himself, she then picks the fruit and eats it.
"But they ate from the forbidden fruit. Their innocence was extinguished."
After giving Adam the fruit to eat, sin soon spread and they were cast out of Eden and the serpent was cursed to crawl on his belly and eat dust from the ground.
"God cursed the serpent and Adam and Eve were banished from Eden forever."
"Once they settled down and had two sons named Cain and Abel. Cain became jealous of his brother Abel since he found favor in God so Cain murdered him."
Some years later Cain, full of jealousy, grabs a stone to kill his brother Abel committing the first murder.
"And so for the ten generations since Adam, sin has walked within us."
In the present times as mankind populated the earth, they were committing a lot of sins, murdering each other, stealing, and worshiping false gods. Even into the Future Humanity has made slaves of their fellow men and Wars on themselves from World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, African men sold as slaves, the French and Indian War, the Cold War, the Russian War, wars in Greece, Japanese, Korean, Egyptian, Roman, Chinese, and Indian empires, Indians oppressed by the settlers, Spaniards conquering the Americas, and 9/11.
"Brother against brother. Nation against nation. Man against Creation. We murdered each other. We broke the world. We did this. Man did this. Everything that was beautiful, everything that was good, we shattered. Now, it begins again."
. . . . .
Soon Albert finished his story everyone had shocked and sad looks on their faces and said nothing.
"Now you all know the story, Now you understand how the world is what it is" Said Albert.
"Yead, we do," replied Lincoln.
"I think I'm gonna cry," cried Lana sadly.
"That's literally horrible," sighed Lori.
"I get it now, why all this has happened and still going on, But what does that have to do with Lincoln's vision?" asked Tinkerbell.
"I'm not sure exactly, and Lincoln, The Creator calls to you, does He not?" asked Albert.
"Yes, he does," Lincoln replied.
"Well then, I have a feeling perhaps the best thing to do is to answer His call," suggested Albert.
"You mean I should talk to him?" Lincoln asked as this was confusing.
"Just ask him what you need to know," replied Albert.
"Do you really think he will answer me, Pop-Pop?"
"I know he will, He is calling to you, Lincoln Noah. Go out there, and answer it!" Albert Loud said.