Eight is NOT Enough... is it?

I just realized the other day that God waited 100 years for Noah to build the ark...only to save EIGHT people in the end. EIGHT!!! The reason this seems significant to me is in light of what I was thinking about yesterday. We are all about results and performance as people. We generally run life like a business. If we aren't getting the results we think, we cut the funding, by George! But, God doesn't work that way. The thing that blows my mind about this story of Noah is that God already knew how many were going to be getting on. It wasn't like the day of the flood came and God sat there and scratched his head saying, "Oh rats! I had you make this ark ginormous, Noah, and look. Nobody is showing up. What a waste of time!" Nope. He told him to build the ark, waited patiently, and allowed eight little people to board. Now that's kindness. I think this strikes me as kindness because God's not into showing off his most recent stats. He's into loving people. That's the way it was from the beginning and the way it is now. EIGHT people saved in a hundred years time... Wow! Not a good return on His investment. Or maybe again...it was a great return!