A Dove

Many days after the total destruction of a world “filled with violence,” Noah sent forth a dove “to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground.” She “found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him.” And “he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.” And yet “other seven days” he sent her forth again and she “came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf… the waters were abated from off the earth… And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent” her forth. And she “returned not again unto him any more” (cf. Genesis 8).