Yesterday we looked at Mount Rushmore, a finished project (at least it was declared to be finished when the four presidential heads were done). Near Mount Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial, a monumental statue, which is planned to be 641 long and 563 feet high and look like this.

A model of the Crazy Horse Memorial

It is not finished. In fact, very little of it has been completed. Started in 1948, the head of Crazy Horse wasn’t completed until 1998, 50 years later.

Here’s how it looks today. The face (97 feet high) and outstretched arm (over 220 feet long) are done.

I have mixed feelings. I admire a gigantic goal, but it seems that on some level it ought to be doable. On the other hand, just because it’s not finished now, doesn’t mean it will never be finished. For example, St Peter’s Basilica in Rome was built between 1506 and 1626, 120 years.

Speaking of 120 years, some people believe that the 120 years referred to in Genesis 6.3 is the time it took Noah and his sons to build the ark.

Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” (ESV)

Like the Crazy Horse Memorial, Noah’s Ark was a family project with no outside funding and took a VERY long time.

Global rebellion calls for global response. God tells Noah that he is going to destroy everything on earth. Then he gives Noah the blueprints for a massive building project that will call on every known feat of human engineering and technology to build an ocean-worthy ship. Within a society that used only small boats to navigate rivers, the ark defied all existing categories of engineering. By sheer size, it exceeded all practical use. And by sheer necessity, it forced Noah to begin blazing new paths in engineering and technology in a building project that would require over a century to complete. – Tony Reinke, God, Technology, and the Christian Life, pages 33 – 34.

And like Noah’s building project, the folks working on the Crazy Horse Memorial are using the time to educate people on Native American issues and culture.

…God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. (1 Peter 3.20, ESV)

…he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. (2 Peter 2.5, ESV, emphasis mine)