rainbow

One of the great joys of my life at this point is watching Dawn read Bible stories to the grandkids. Somehow that simple thing shows me the covenant more than any other experience I’ve had. This woman who committed herself to God and then later to me is more than just the biological matriarch of our little clan. She’s also the spiritual mother who shows in her every-day faithfulness to God and us what can be done by those who live in God’s will.

I’m also able to see with my five decades of perspective that all of those Bible stories are the same story, and the Bible is really one story. So it seems entirely appropriate this morning to read about Noah as part of Advent devotions. In fact, I now wonder why I’ve never seen a rainbow Christmas ornament.

Look at this from Genesis 9:12-13: “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: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 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. 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.’”

That echoes for me God’s promise in the Garden and through all of time to send a savior. The destruction that I deserve for my sin is the same as the godless people of Noah’s day, the ones destroyed by the flood. On that occasion, all creation paid the price. Later on, God himself, the God-man Jesus, would pay my price. 

God promised Noah that from this point there would always be life, always be hope. He marked that promise with a rainbow. 

It’s kind of sad that these days the rainbow means something so different in our society; it has been coopted by a movement that denies and defies God’s created order for sex. Yet even in that there seems to me a message of hope. My own sin is no less offensive to God, yet his sign of the rainbow is for me. 

Maybe rainbow Christmas ornaments are bad idea, but maybe they aren’t. God’s promise of covenant to Noah is no different than his covenant with Abraham and curse on the serpent and all his promises to his people through all of time: No matter how bad your sin, there will be a way out. The rescuer is coming. Watch and wait.