Please give me back my rainbow

 

Please give me back my rainbow
the symbol of God’s promises, 
kept time and time again.

No matter how his children sinned
and live within sin's stain 
our God still paints forgiveness
precious treasure through the rain

If we look at the entire story of the flood, we find that God’s anger at sin is terrifying.

The rainbow first appeared to men after God had washed the world of an epidemic of sin and debauchery.   The Bible tells us

The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.   

So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”  Genesis 6:5-8

But there was one man who did not yield to the sin that prevailed on the earth.  His name was Noah.  Again the Bible says,

“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”

 God gave Noah instructions to build a boat.  One that would hold all that God wanted to preserve on this earth.  Noah spent many years building this “ark” and after that God sent the animals to him and they all entered the boat and “the LORD shut him in.”

 It rained for 40 days, and water came up out of the earth and covered everything.  

But after Noah and his family had been in the ark about 370 days and there was dry land, God said, 

 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”  Genesis 8:16

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.”  Genesis 9:12-17

God promised to remember His people.  The mighty, All-Powerful God of the universe made a promise.  It was that He would never again flood the entire earth.  God keeps His promises.  Even with all the evil in our world over the centuries, we are still here.

The rainbow in the sky should not only remind us of our loving, promise keeping God, but also the lengths that He went to, in order to make sure the human race would go on.  It should remind us how He hatred and was disappointed in the sin of the men He created.  

When I look at the rainbow (in the sky) I see two sides of our God, His love and His justice.  

It saddens me to see the way that beautiful symbol has been misappropriated by our culture.  And God is Love, and He has a right to ask that we honor Him by obeying His just requirements.

So I pray that someday the world we live in will remember and give us back our rainbow.

God of the Small Things

 

Do you not know?  Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.  
Isaiah 40:28 (NIV) 

When I look at our Mighty, Awesome God of Power. who made the amazing universe – God who created the unnumbered stars, the roaring thunder, the mighty wind and weather, and the limitless space.

I wonder

I wonder, Father, do you care about the small things?  I think that my everyday life is such a small thing compared to all your mighty works.  My movements, in and out of this, my place of prayer – do you care about them?

If I think about it, do I take for granted the fact that, when I wake in the morning, I do! 

(I wake in the morning.)  

Each part of this body that slept, at least part of the night, begins to do what our maker designed it to do.  Is that a small thing?

Many small things make up life.  But are they small?

The day begins, and so many small things amaze me.  I look out the kitchen window and see grass and trees.  I see the dew on the ground.  I see little, tiny wrens picking at pieces of something they find on the ground.  Oh, they are so precious, sashaying around, not strutting as if they were proud of themselves, but still letting every inch of creation know that the creator thinks they are special.

 I turn on the TV.  I like to watch a Tim Janis video as I arrange my thoughts to meet my Father.  The videos highlight God’s creation in glorious color.  As you look at waterfalls, trees, flowers, mountains, animals and abundant birds, you hear beautiful old hymns voicing the love and care of our Father, the maker of these glories.

Small thing – ordinary thing – no!  Just what I needed today to focus on the maker of this small life I’m living.  This was just what I needed to focus on Him and not on myself.

Later, an email comes in from a person who “just happened to think about me” on a day I felt forgotten.

Small thing – no! Just what I needed today to focus on God’s love and care for his people.

I see a picture of one person worshipping God in a foreign country.

Small thing?  No!

Not small or ordinary.  We need to see the truth that we’re not alone in this battle.  Many of God’s children care as well.  

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As for our lives today, we are in the process of moving from our home to a smaller place.  When we moved to Indiana about 4 years ago, we wanted a place in which we could breathe.  After being in our mountains for about 30 years, moving to a city was a bit difficult.  We’ve enjoyed the large beautiful green lawn, the flowers and the garden, but it’s gotten a little hard to keep in the shape we believe this home and neighborhood deserve.  And of course our bodies, though made by our God, begin to get a bit tired after 80 plus years.

We’re excited for the move, and still a little disappointed that we have to leave this home that we’ve grown to love.   There’s an amazing story to that.  When we bought this home 3 ½ years ago, the previous owner told us that she had walked through every room praying that the home would be a blessing to us. 

Yes, God was in those small things.

So we move on.  Our place will be smaller – but in all of that, we KNOW that God cares about the small things, and He is always with us.

We pray that we’ll be able to pass on to its new owners the peace that has enveloped us here.  Peace that we believe came about because of the small prayers of that precious lady.

Well, you get the idea.  Arrangements have been made that we could not imagine, with the speed and ease that we didn’t expect.  So we will move on – not far, but well.  

Our God is in all things – the big and the small things.