Rainbow: sign of the covenant.

Rise and Shine!

“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 creatures of every living kind on the earth.”
Genesis 9: 16

Many years ago, when my children were young, I was hired as Director of Christian Education at my church. We were small church and had perhaps a dozen children in the Sunday school program. I well remember teaching the story of Noah’s Ark and along with that Genesis story, my friend Libba and I taught them the song, ‘Rise and Shine’, better known as ‘Arky-Arky’. We marched around the fellowship hall, hands waving in the air, and singing at the top of our lungs:

“The sun came out and dried up the landy, landy.
The sun came out and dried up the landy, landy.
Everything was fine and dandy, dandy.
Children of the Lord.

“So rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory.
Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory.
Rise--and shine—and--give God the glory, glory,
Children of the Lord!”

Such a sweet memory, for such a terrible story! In the New Testament, I Peter 3, says that God waited ‘patiently’ while Noah built the Ark, so that He could destroy every living thing at one fell-swoop. I can not imagine how we softened the blow of this story for small children—perhaps by concentrating on saving the animals and not on drowning everything else. The God of the Old Testament was a warrior God who did not acknowledge the rules of fair-play.

Yet, who doesn’t love seeing a rainbow, the sign of God’s covenant with Noah never to destroy the earth by flood again. And who hasn’t stopped the car just to observe the beautiful phenomenon of a double rainbow. Even though we know the scientific basis of the rainbow, we still feel good about the sign; still see it as a gift from God. And it is. It is one of the more beautiful natural occurrences, along with the Northern lights, and sunrise over the ocean. We are blessed here on the Blue Planet by the sheer beauty of our sphere. I hope you are able to go outside today to ‘rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory!’

One child of a kinder, gentler God,
Jane