As children, do you remember the different degrees of promises? Let me break it down for you. There was: a promise, a Cross My Heart & Hope to Die promise, and a Spit Shake promise (disgusting. #allthegerms). But the mother of all promises: a Pinky promise. Once you linked pinkies & “shook” on it? You better mean it! I suppose we thought words were just words, but some sort of action was needed to seal the deal. As usual, the Lord has us beat. Do you know what He did to seal His promise to us? He created the rainbow.
We all know the story. It was probably one of the first ones you learned as a child. God had to eradicate all sin on the face of the earth He created, so He appointed Noah to build the ark, save 2 of each animal, & bring his family aboard as well. The Lord sent waters to flood the face of the planet while Noah & his family were safe aboard the ark. After The Flood (capital T, capital F because it was The Flood of ALL floods!) He made a covenant to mankind to never again flood the entire earth & kill all living things:
“I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, & never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth,” Genesis 9:11
And then He put something in the post-storm skies that probably brought Noah’s family to their knees. He created one of my favorite things in all existence: the rainbow. He shook on it. He pinky promised that He wouldn’t destroy everything on earth again. This was such a huge promise. Can you imagine the Lord in all His infinite power & strength restraining from wiping sin & malice from our world again? At times it seems like He should. Let’s just start over & try again. The first 2 omelettes are always throw-aways after all. But He holds back because He promised. And such a huge covenant deserved a huge symbol of faith.
“And God said, ‘This is a sign of the covenant that I make between me & you & every living create that is with you, for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloud, & it shall be a sign of the covenant between me & the earth,” (Genesis 9:12-13)
Creating rainbows in my Bible is a pretty common occurrence. They hold so much meaning for us as Christians & are a reminder of so many things: faith, trust, promises, creation, His power, His creativity, love, new growth, & starting over to name a few. I stitched this little paper rainbow & reflected on these things while I was sewing. I even wrote the word “covenant” in rainbow letters with versatile Tile Alphas from the Print & Pray Shop to tie the promise into my title!
We are so wildly loved that He has promised not to destroy our race again. And because we still needed saving, He sent us Jesus to cover us in grace. That kind of love, that large of a promise can’t be measured by any yard stick. It takes a whole rainbow.
<3 Elaine
additional supplies: Hero Arts Woodblock Butterfly stamps set of 3 LP215 | misc washi tapes
