Rainbows

Alright, here it comes! So last night I’m sitting in my hotel room doing a little reading. I decided my new challenge for the year is to read through the entire bible at least once. I wasn’t sure how to organize that so I turned to my iPhone app which laid out a plan. Now I thought a reading plan for a year would have only one or two ways to accomplish it, I was very much mistaken. There are book by book plans, chronological plans, non-chronological plans, and so on and so on. To tell you the truth I was not too excited to read the Old Testament, basically because everyone says it’s hard to understand and follow. So I decided to do a blended plan which would give me a little old and a little new in hopes that I wouldn’t get burned out and give up.

 

So here we go, Day 1 I start reading Genesis 1 -3 and Romans 1, and basically we see that God created the world and everything in it in only seven days! That still amazes me, but I have heard that many many many times! [Probably because I decide to start reading the bible in a year and I never make it past Genesis!]  But anyways Day 2 comes around and I read Genesis 4-6 and Romans 2. I read that God had already created Adam and Eve, they had already eaten fruit from the wrong tree, and we covered all the kids they had and that their kids and grandkids had as well.

*Side note: Adam lived until he was 930 years old and all of his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids lived well into their 800’s or 900’s as well! That’s just crazy to comprehend! But after the people began to multiply God realized if people keep living this long the world would not be able to hold that many people, so he drastically reduced their lifespan to be no more than 120 years! Adam hadn’t even had his first kid by then! He was 130 before the first one! Crazy!

Okay, okay back to the story…Day 3: Genesis 7-9 and Romans 3. here comes Noah, a righteous and blameless person who walked extremely close to God. He was married had 3 sons and which were also married. God came to Noah one day and explained to him that the world is corrupt and it must be destroyed. So as we all know He gave him specific instructions as to how to build an arc and what exactly to bring on it before he would flood the earth and destroy everything on it. Noah was only 600 years old, not a big deal for him, so he did just as God commanded. The flood came, destroyed the land and everything in it, and 150 days later God told Noah to release the animals and leave the arc. And these next few verses is what made me nearly want to jump out of bed and run around my little hotel room! Ready?

Genesis 9:11-17 (ahhh I’m still so excited about this!!)

“Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth. Then God said, I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth. Then God said to Noah, yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”

Man! I still have a giant smile on my face as I type this! You know each time it gets ready to rain I look out my window and watch the clouds get darker and darker. My fears of something bad happening begin to build and I begin to freak out a little [well maybe a lot, but that’s beside the point, right?] Anyways usually before or after the storm I can see a rainbow, but I never knew exactly why or where it came from. I guess it has been described by science teachers before as reflections of light, so I would always think “oh that’s so pretty, I love when the reflections of light meet like that.” But now! I know REALLY why it happens! God is telling us, “Yes! It’s fixing to or has already stormed, and Yes! You have or will make it through because I will not destroy what I have created again!” It’s God’s word, written in the sky [like we always ask him to do for us], plain for us all to see and read! It’s in a language that everyone in the entire world can read and comprehend! That’s how great our God is!

So as I said before, I was dreading reading some of the Old Testament, but I can tell you now…I’m pumped! God continues to show himself to me every day and last night he showed me something new, something that I can look forward to, and something for me to remember that He is in control of it all! If He makes this kind of promise not to destroy the earth again, I know that His promise for me and my life plans are guaranteed and something I will never have to worry or be the slightest bit concerned about!  So keep your eyes open, be on the watch for rainbows, and know that God promises to carry you through everything!