Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 8:1 turns the tide of the story with a phrase the Hebrew does not quite say. And the Lord in His Word remembered Noah, and then — listen carefully — the Lord caused the wind of mercies to pass over the earth, and the waters were dried.
In the plain Hebrew of Genesis, God sends a ruach, a wind or a spirit. The Targum tells us what kind of wind it was. It was rucha derachmei, the wind of mercies. The same air that blew across the waters at the very beginning of creation now blows again, but this time it is named as mercy.
Pause on that image. The skies have been raining judgment for forty days. The fountains of the deep have finished their work. There is nothing left to punish. And at that moment heaven exhales, and the breath is kind. The Holy One does not simply stop the Flood — the Holy One sends a tender breeze to dry the water so Noah does not have to climb out of a swamp.
The Maggid hears in this the rhythm of the Jewish God: judgment and mercy, never one without the other. The takeaway: after any flood in your own life, look for the wind of mercies. It usually arrives before you think you deserve it.