Noah

History through flannelgraph 

This past weekend I saw Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. First let me say, in case you didn’t already know, Mr. Aronofsky is a master storyteller with a brilliant style and amazing instincts. As a storyteller does, he takes something simple and vague and gives it life. The story of Noah from Genesis spans 100 years in just a little over four chapters. I wouldn’t say it’s a play by play account of what happened, but rather, it gives us the bare bones of the story. How the movie Noah filled in the meat of those bare bones is extremely creative, and yes, like all movies, takes some creative license.

I caught myself feeling very angry and frustrated at one point in the movie. I was thinking “this isn’t how this goes.” I thought my classic story was being ripped apart. Then... I felt the sting of guilt. What do I really know about this story?

My first experience of this Bible story was in Sunday School with the Sunday School teacher’s favorite storytelling device — the flannelgraph. For those of you who have not experienced the wonder of the flannelgraph, I’m envious of you. A flannelgraph is a board covered in… yep, flannel. The scenes are drawn, maybe painted or perhaps dyed. I have know idea how these things work, but little Bible characters get stuck to this board and a very nice person who gave up their Sunday morning tells you very odd, somewhat sanitized Bible story.

The irony struck me, I’m sitting in this dark movie theater, mad because this film unfolding in front of my eyes doesn’t match the flannelgraph I was shown as a small child (well, I think I was ‘small’ since my love of Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers didn’t develop until the fifth grade).

I guess what I’m saying is we all have these pictures in our minds of how our stories should go. When we try to place where these thoughts came from, we don’t really know or might even be embarrassed of their origins. I often feel this way in how my life unfolds as well. I know how this story should go, and when it doesn’t, I get mad and tell myself this isn’t how this story should go. However, this belief that I know what’s best has led to more heart break than I would like to remember.

In the end I’m glad I saw Noah, and I thought it was very well done. I have nothing bad to say about it. Once I gave up my idea of what it should be, I found it quite fun.

I bet the story of life could be the same. Give up on what you think it should be, and just let it be what it is.