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Genesis 6:5-8, 13-22; 7:17 23, 24; 8:1, 6-22
Sometimes I feel really impatient with a project and just slam my laptop shut, and have to walk away. Other times, a paper isn’t going the route I had expected, so I delete and start over. How many of us have gotten frustrated with something we’re working on and just had to take a deep breath and walk away? Whether it’s something you’re writing or making, or it’s your own children that you need a breather from, we all get overwhelmed and need to step backsometimes. We aren’t perfect.
We aren’t the Lord, who STILL got so frustrated with humankind that he said: “I will wipe out from the earth the human beings I have created, and not only the human beings, but also the animals and the crawling things and the birds of the air, for I regret that I made them.”
Holy moly, think of how BAD the people were that even our LORD was like “Ehhh, nope, let’s start this humankind over again. These guys are AWFUL!”, and did just that!? Noah,however, was all right in God’s book. So God told Noah how to get the boat prepped, and Noah followed His instructions.
Personally, I can think of a few things I would have left off the boat, but I’m not great at following directions sometimes. The rains came and they brought the floods,which lifted the ark and wiped the earth clean. The floods stuck around for 150 days, and the ark came to rest near some mountains. In the end, Noah built an altar and gave up every “good,” offering, and the Lord said, “Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, sincethe desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done.”
This explains a lot, because I can’t imagine humankind has failed to reach peak “awful humans” levels since then. God, however, gave us His promise, and that’s why He hasn’t done that again. He then explained to Noah how he should live, what animals they could eat, and promised that rainbows would be our sign of His forgiveness.
Whenever the rainbows would appear, it would serve as a reminder to us that He’s not going to wipe out life on earth again. Rainbows serve as a physically visible reminder to us of His promise. They’re asymbol of hope and a reminder to take heart! Last week I was feeling particularly overwhelmed, and someone reminded me that I was due for a rainbow soon.
At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, other than that phrase “you can’t have a rainbow without rain" but as I write this, I realize that the rainbow is a reminder that even as overwhelmed and off-center as I sometimes get witheverything I have on my plate, there’s always a rainbow on its way.
Reflect- Are you in the stormy time or the rainbow time of life right now? When in your life have you felt especially undeserving of God’s grace, His rainbow?
Act: Say a prayer of gratitude for whichever stage you’re in, rainbow or rain, as well as for the grace our Lord has promised for us!
