“And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him saying, And I, behold, I  establish my covenant with you, and with your seed (descendants) after you;

And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

And I will establish my covenant with you: neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy earth.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. 

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

And it shall come to pass, When I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 

And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” Genesis 9:8-17 

Nothing on this earth or nothing created by humans or human creation can even come close to the majestic beauty of a God-given rainbow.

And rightly for so, for it is the representation of a weapon of the King, the bow literally means war bow, humans added the rain to the name.

A magnificent heavenly archer’s bow poised for use, however no longer bearing arrows, it is a sign of peace, as God has chosen to hang it in the heavens.

We all have rainbow stories, and I am no exception, there was a beautiful double one yesterday evening in the sky perfectly poised over the home of my parents.

A sight that brings comfort and bittersweetness all mingled into an absolute awe for the mercy and compassion of God,

My family are neighbors, or should say were, my parents, my brother, my family.

Our homes in a close little circle perfect for times of joy and celebration, but my late brothers home dead silent now a painful reminder of love and laughter lost far too soon.

The rainbows began the day my brother died, of course there had been rainbows before, glorious and majestic, but never had I been so struck by the true meaning until the day that he passed and I was walking back from my home to my mothers and in the corner of a stormy, black, black sky was a rainbow.

I had never in my life noticed a rainbow in a black sky, but there it was, its beautiful splendor  changing the entire message of what that black sky was projecting down on me, as if to say, in the pain and sorrow, in feeling of just wanting to lay down and die, God is here and this is his promise, beauty from the ashes and peace that only he can give in the midst of the sorrow. 

Years later when my Mom passed away, on a day that we had not had even one drop of rain, in a beautiful blue sky there again appeared his promise, but this time a double rainbow, a big one with a smaller one directly under it, as if the big rainbow was sheltering the smaller one and we were all just blown away, the hospice workers, our pastor and his beautiful wife, we all witnessed the incredible sight.

I want us all to think about rainbows today and notice something in our passage.

God said that he set the bow there to remember his promise that when he looks at the bow, he remembers his promise that would never again destroy earth with water.

And his bow hangs in the sky as a token of that promise and that is a promise of love, mercy, and compassion. 

The pain, sorrow, and distress are not from him, but his love and mercy are there to see us through.

The rainbow is a symbol of his love and compassion toward all his creation.  

We know that since the dawn of it all the enemy and those on his behalf have tried to pervert God’s glorious symbol and one day they will truly answer for that, as it is a symbol of the glory of God.  

Through those who have tried to steal it as their own nations have enacted their own downfalls.

No counterfeit color-bow will ever replace or disannul power of the truth in understanding of the meaning of the true resting war-bow.

Look for those true rainbows today and remember that in every dark sky, through the worst of days, and the blackest of nights the love and mercy Jesus has for you remains the same, just as the true rainbow, whose colors and patterns never change.

*A little footnote: The featured image was generated by a new AI option WordPress has now added and I do have actual pictures of glorious rainbows but wanted  to have one representing dark times in life and as good as AI is, and please don’t think I am flipping on it, I am not, it’s still going to be a horrendous tool in the end-time events, but for today, as good as it is, it still cannot replicate even close to the beauty and intricacy of God’s true war bow.

Love and Peace to you today, keep looking up and never stop looking for the rainbows in middle of those dark skies and let those beautiful colors remind you that there are brighter days ahead.

NBJ 2024/ Rev. N Brown Johnson