8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with
him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you
and with your descendants after you 10 and with
every living creature that was with you—the birds,
the livestock and all the wild animals, all those
that came out of the ark with you—every living
creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with
you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the
waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood
to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant
I am making between me and you and every living
creature with you, a covenant for all generations
to come:13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds,
and it will be the sign of the covenant between me
and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over
the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,
15 I will remember my covenant between me and
you and all living creatures of every kind. Never
again will the waters become a flood to destroy
all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the
clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting
covenant between God and all living creatures
of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the
covenant I have established between me and all
life on the earth.”
Before you read this, I would like to direct you to the video below. Go ahead, go click on it. I’ll wait. Meet you back here when you’re done.
Are you back? Awesome. Could you feel that guy’s uncontained joy just at the sight of a rainbow (excuse me, a DOUBLE rainbow)? I can’t remember the last time I ever got that excited about a rainbow but I probably should be that excited about a rainbow because it’s so much more than just some light refracting through some water vapor. At 1:20 in the video, we hear the guy exclaim, “What does it mean?!” I’ll tell you what it means, friend: it means God loves us a whole lot. A covenant, by definition, is an agreement. So technically there should be two sides to this deal; God promised that He would never again destroy all life by a flood but what do we need to do in exchange? What’s the catch? That’s the awesome part: there is no catch. God’s promise to Noah was unconditional and completely based on His faithfulness alone. That’s how much He loves us. And we are reminded of how much He loves us every time we see a rainbow. So while, no, I will probably never break down into uncontrollable sobs at the sight of a (double) rainbow, I will always remember God’s promise, His faithfulness, and His unfailing love. And that is something worth getting excited about.
Maggie Collett is a graduate student and Graduate Fellow for Student Life and Leadership.
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