Stories told from generation to generation get passed down for the lessons they teach, entertainment they provide, and encouragement they evoke. After the industrial revolution, the United States immortalized many stories through toys, games, then movies and television. Of these stories, religious ones are dominate.

The story of Noah’s Ark can be found on film, in theology classes, and wallpapered in a child’s bedroom. While children enjoy the concept of all animals harmoniously living on one boat, the real story is a tale, both hopeful and frightening, of God’s power. God had looked at the people he had created and was disappointed. He saw in their hearts that all of their desires and decisions were evil, they had become very wicked, barbaric, and violent toward each other. He decided to rid the Earth of people, upset that he’d created them in the first place.

Before God sent the flood waters he saw that a man named Noah was a good, righteous man. God called out to Noah telling him that he was going to flood the Earth, but would save Noah and his family. By God’s command Noah built a huge ark to save himself, his wife, his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, their wives, and two of every animal, one male and one female. Noah did everything as God had commanded it and then the water came.

The rain lasted forty days and nights and the water flooded the Earth for 150 days. God sent a wind over the Earth and the water began to recede. Noah sent a raven to search for dry ground but it did not find any, so he waited seven days then sent a dove and it returned with an olive leaf. After another seven days he sent the dove again only this time it did not return. God told Noah and his family to leave the ark.

During the flood Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark were the only ones to survive. When he left the ark, Noah made a sacrifice to thank God for saving him and the Earth. God made a new covenant with Noah vowing never to send another flood. He promised, “As long as the Earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” God told Noah that his sign of the covenant that would last for generations was the rainbow. He told Noah whenever he saw the rainbow in the clouds during the rain he’d remember that covenant as would the people on the Earth.

Variations of the story of Noah and the flood are found in many religions, as well as many books and toys. Currently Geppi’s Entertainment’s Hake’s Americana has listed a Walt Disney’s realistic Noah’s Ark boxed set. The set consists of die-cut cardboard pieces displaying excellent condition. There are five sheets of punch-out figures of Noah, his family, and over 100 animals in near mint to mint condition. The item is for immediate sale and can be found at hakes.com.