A Covenant in the Sky

 

NORBERTO & EVELYN NAZARENO

It was a spectacular sight: a complete rainbow with very vivid colors! We both did not remember having seen such a perfect rainbow. We had to stop for a while on the roadside to briefly admire it while it lasted… for as we know, they disappear as fast as they appear. There it was in front of us: the multi-color beauty of God’s covenant!  

We had to refresh and re-read Genesis 9: 12-13.

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.”

As we know, God’s ways are not our ways. Before calming the wind, the storm had to toss the boat. Before the multiplication of the bread, the crowd got tired and hungry. Before Lazarus was raised, he first died with Mary and Martha in deep grief. Before He resurrected, He suffered much and had to descend to the dead.

We were reminded that it all got started during the time of Noah in Genesis 6:5, 11-13, 16. 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…

Now, the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.”

Is this ‘deja vu’ for us?  We are now in another worldwide reawakening with this Covid pandemic, worsened locally by our apparent bureaucratic mismanagement. What excuses can we think of now?

But today, on the road along Carmona, Cavite, He reminded us:

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…

The Lord is once again saying:

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

1 of 4

We stopped. We saw. We admired. We believed. But we had to see and believe in our hearts, for the rainbow was on a rainy day. The wiper was banging, although lightly across the windshield; the world was literally speeding by; the electric wires were like spaghetti in the foreground; the gas station was a reminder of the pollution of our environment. When we stopped, we had to see the rainbow against a quiet sky with our hearts and recognize the One who painted it … minus all the noise and distractions. He is there amidst our storm! It was not a natural landscape worth painting.

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”  Genesis 9:17 

What more is there to say, after we stopped to admire and acknowledge His presence among us? Then Evelyn spontaneously sang:  “I can sing a rainbow.”

Praise and thank God!!!

SEE A Covenant in the Sky, Discover – Links