The Rainbow

Worship Wednesday with Pastor Edith
May 21, 2025
Gen.6:5-8, 7: 11-12, 8:13-17, 9:12-16

Last evening, I received a very timely blessing from the Lord, maybe some of you got one too. I had been working for several hours prayerfully putting together a funeral service for a dear friend who passed away a few days ago. I was his Deli Sandwich maker at a nearby food mart for nearly 10 years and after that I was his pastor for 14 years. So much going through my head, so many fun memories and several sad ones too. When I finished reading and re-reading and praying over the service, I saved the document and shut down my laptop. I didn’t realize how stiff I was from sitting so long, so I got up and walked around stretching. When I got to our patio door to go out, I saw a beautiful rainbow arching over the corn field in back of our yard. Wow! God knew I needed another reminder of his provision and promise.

The book of Genesis includes the story of Noah and the great flood which resulted in God’s provision and promise. God was very grieved over the wickedness of mankind that He made in his own image only to see them live without care for Him or for one another: “So the Lord said,’ I will wipe mankind, whom I have created from the face of the earth-men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air-for I am grieved that I have made them’. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:7-8). God opened up the floodgates of the heavens and rain fell for forty days and nights (7:11-12). “By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth…by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. Then God said to Noah, ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives [along with all the living creatures]” (8:13-17). God had provided for Noah and his family for more than a year, because that’s how long they had been confined to the ark. We often think it was only 40 days and nights, but you have the count the time of the waiting, the rain, the flood, the receding of the waters and the drying of the ground. That’s a long cruise.

God then gives them the promise; “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” (9:12-15).

Seeing the rainbow at a time of my grieving, felt like God was reminding me that He has a plan and He is still working the plan. I love the idea that God put a rainbow together as a reminder to him and all humankind that He would not flood the whole earth again. Even God needs a reminder when people and things are out of control. Let’s give thanks to God for his reminders, and then remind someone else that He still loves them and has a plan for them too.

AMEN and Pray on!