Sample 70 – A Sign, A Wonder (Arizona ’10)

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
– Genesis 9:12-17
As I read these passages one morning just a few days ago, I was reminded of one particular ‘rainbow’ everyone saw when we were in the Grand Canyon. We were on one of the final stops on our tour of the park, when everyone suddenly lifted their cameras, from taking the breathtaking landscape to shooting the peculiar bright colors glowing on the clouds in the sky. I simply had to follow suit.

While I pulled up these pictures I took almost 4 years ago, I wanted to know the exact term for this ‘rainbow in the clouds’; after a few seconds of Googling I found out that what we saw was a small section of what’s known as a circumhorizonal arc.

I spoke to my girlfriend about what I read in Genesis, and what I shot and we agreed that we are also to be, in some way or form, a sign – a reminder to all of God’s faithfulness and love towards us – that when people see us in our own daily lives, they are reminded in one way or the other of how God is faithful and true to His word.

Now that I type this, I remember the days when we just started our relationship. I was literally ‘on fire’ in telling everyone my story before, during, and after we agreed to be more than just friends. That I was living a life of idolatry, until the Lord brought me through the most trying of valley experiences. By God’s grace and in His perfect timing, I came out so much more boldly, declaring that, indeed, those who call out the name of the Lord will be saved! 

I’d love to go in detail regarding this… next time. But this is what I want to say for now. As followers of Christ, I believe we would do well to heed His word in Revelation 12:11, which says that we overcome the enemy by the blood of Jesus Christ, and by the word of our testimony.

The rainbow exists to remind us of God’s faithfulness to his word. Let our lives remind all of the same thing.

Lord, by the blood of Jesus Christ and by the power of Your Spirit, use us. Work in and through us, that none should perish, but for all to come to repentance. Take all the glory, Lord! In Jesus Christ’s Name I pray, amen!

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