As a child, whenever I saw a rainbow, it gladdened my heart. Loved the beautiful colors, merged with each other in such a beautiful way, that in spite of being seen (visually) as one, each color had a distinct identity, beauty, shining in the sky …….joy to my eye.. I absolutely loved it. How was I to know the great significance it carried with its existence? All I could do was, marvel at nature’s beauty.

Rainbow is a promise, made by God to us.

Moral decay of man is as old as beginning of creation. By choosing to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil…., Adam and his companion Eve, yielded to temptation and sinned in God’s sight. Result was God’s invoking a curse on life with ‘death’….physical, spiritual and of the soul. By disobedience, Adam (unknowingly) asserted himself above God. With Adam’s fall, world plunged into sins through every conceivable evil.

God created the earth with so much love. He created man primarily for worship, fellowship and procreation. (Genesis 6:1-8) Men began to multiply on the face of the earth , result of God’s blessing on Adam and Eve(Genesis 1:28) to “ be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”

When God blessed Adam and Eve, his plan was an inheritance for Adam and Eve to fill the earth, work as a team with God to set everything in motion as God had planned. Because now the earth had it’s seasons, days and nights, years, plants and animals. Basically God desired Adam and Eve (as His children) to appreciate His diverse and imaginative creations and work the earth.

But as men multiplied, lawlessness and sinful ways multiplied too. Genesis 6:3-6 says, Lord regretted that He made man on earth, and He was grieved at heart. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination and intention of ‘all’ human thinking was only evil ‘continually’. So the Lord said, I will ‘destroy, ‘blot out’ and ‘wipe away mankind’, whom I have created from the face of the ground—-not only man, but the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air—for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them”.

I can empathize with God’s feelings. As parents we give birth to children, raise them up with the best of our abilities, nurture them spiritually, emotionally, physically, but when they grow up, they have their own thoughts (mostly ungodly), an outcome of modernization. We as seniors see them going wrong way, but are helpless in our own power till GOD opens their eyes (which depends on when God decides to). It really breaks our hearts.

Imagine how much God must have been grieved to have come to a point to ‘regret His works’.

God still is very loving.

There was a man named ‘Noah’ who found favor in God’s sight (maybe God still was looking for a way to save the world). As flesh and blood I am sure Noah had many weaknesses ( not much recorded in scriptures , apart from the incident where he was found drunk and lay naked and awoke and cursed Ham, his youngest son, Genesis 9:20-25) but the reason he found favor in God’s sight was Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in ‘his generation’ because he walked (in habitual fellowship) with God., which was counted righteous in God’s eyes.

Genesis 6 :11-14 says, “The earth was depraved and putrid in God’s sight , and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault and lust for power). And God looked upon the earth and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction”

Today we marvel at scientific discoveries. What intrigues me ……imagine those ancient days when people were unaware of science, Noah was given specific directions to make an ark, a wonder in itself, Architect was the great scientist omniscient God Himself. What the world knows as “Noah’s ark”, was made of gopher or cypress wood, with rooms, pens, stalls, coops, cages and compartments. God gave instructions for dimensions (length, breadth and heights,) Length of the ark was 300 cubits, breadth 50 cubits and height 30 cubits (that is 450 ft. x 75 ft x 45 ft)….where Noah’s family and a pair (male and female) of every kind of birds, animals, beasts, reptiles, basically every living thing of all flesh found on land, were to enter the ark for survival.

How magnificent our God is! The Master creator and author of our lives saw the ark as an ‘idea’ for human and wildlife preservation for future. Survival was to happen ‘in an ark’ for almost approximately a year ( Historians and scholars claim it was 377 days, some say it was a year minus one day).

No one lacked anything inside it since Noah had simply followed God’s instructions. His focus was “Gods’ commands”. His generation was too busy to notice what Noah was doing since they were lost and busy in their own world to notice something so unique, coming up. But Noah continued in Faith and built the ark as per God’s command (genesis 6:22). Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons, and his wife and their wives went with him in the ark, along with them.

The ark was “a vessel that sustained them from the flood” so severe.

And the Lord said to Noah, Come with all your household into the ark, for I have seen you to be righteous (upright and in right standing) before ME in this generation (Ps 27:5, 33:18, 19, 11 Pet 2:9) (Genesis 7:1).

Our God is a God of hearts. He searches the inner depths of our hearts. There is probably nothing we can offer to God, since everything is given by Him to us. But our hearts, our motives, our imaginations, our desires, we definitely should be careful about, since that’s in our control, and that’s the only thing we can give to Him…..a clean heart as a sacrifice, an offering to our Holy God.

Genesis 7:11-12 , “……the fountains of the great deep were broken up and burst forth, and the windows and floodgates of the heavens were opened. And it rained upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 7:17-21,……..”and the waters prevailed so exceedingly and were so mighty upon the earth that all the hills were covered. Waters increased and “bore up the ark, and it was lifted(high) above the land” {all flesh(ignorant) ceased to breathe that moved upon the earth, while our loving God preserved gently an upright man (Noah and his family as well for his sake)}. How amazing is He!

Genesis 8:18, “…..Noah and his family were in the ark for one year and ten days” and God blessed them to multiply and be fruitful”.

Genesis 8: 21-22, “ The Lord said to Himself, I will never again curse the ground because of man for the imagination of man’s heart is evil and wicked from his youth. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 9:11-17( an adaptation), “I will establish my covenant with you. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood. A pledge between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations. I set My bow (rainbow) in the cloud, and it shall be token or sign of a covenant or solemn pledge between Me and earth. And it shall be that when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow (rainbow) is seen in the clouds, I will (earnestly) remember My covenant and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy and all flesh corrupt.”

Rainbow was a promise in the Old testament. Christ is an eternal promise and commitment of God for saving us from eternal death. He is the same ‘vessel of survival from floods of life”. God saved us not because of anything we have done or are capable of doing but only for His purpose and His Grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but now revealed through appearing of our savior and Redeemer with appearance of Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:9-10).

Christ is God’s eternal promise of redemption ( The chosen ‘seed’ in Genesis 3:15 of a woman will triumph over evil and restore man to his original position and faith in God). “The Messiah”

Promise of a new beginning

Promise of victory over Satan’s ploys.

Promise of new birth

Promise of power and authority over floods (problems of life). There is power in the Name of Jesus!!!

Christ is the same vessel to lift us up high gently when waters cover the earth( as in Noah’s days).

He is our hope for a beautiful future.

We can make a commitment today that because of the resurrection of Christ, we will enjoy the fullness of our new life, and will stand fast to truth and bold enough to claim the gospel and live by every word of God. As we begin our new life, His light shines from within us and we start ….”loathing ourselves for all the evil we have done” (an adaptation of Ezekiel 20:43,44). His grace helps us live a righteous life and bring blessings into our lives.
“ Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity , therefore God has anointed thee( Heb 1:9)” . A new life of a born again!!!
His promise endures forever!
Blessings.

(“”The writer has been a Cover page Model for various fashion magazines , anchored various musical shows for youth Channels and a (short film) filmmaker for Discovery Channel. Currently busy writing her own book””)