Life is short, pray hard Psalm 90:2

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Psalm 90:2,4 NIV

Nice thing happened today, as I was driving home from work. It was raining, just about to stop. Sun peeked through the clouds and there it was, a beautiful rainbow. The bible tells us it was and is the sign of a covenant, that being a promise from God to never flood the earth in whole again. Genesis 9:13:

¹² 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: ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ 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.”

Well that’s nice, but it comes from the same guy who flooded the earth to begin with. That’s what my flesh tells me. No need to hide it from myself or Him, cause it is there. Why flood the earth? To erase a figurative flood of evil and disobedience and leave behind the one righteous man left? Let him, Noah, repopulate the planet. An adjustment to the ebb and flow of man’s tendency to go his own way. In effect, to extend a timeline in growing a family of prospective children.

Maybe I suppose, I’m no theologian. Is it fair? I can’t say, don’t really have the data. The only detailed data I have is of my own timeline. That timeline, about 20 years if ignorance and a follow up 10 of rebellion. Rebellion against what? At first, against a pull inside of me, telling me I was going the wrong way. A conviction, which I ran away from. Ran until boxed into a corner which forced a 180 degree turn. A turn which made me good? No, rather a turn which prompted a realization that I was not and never could be. A surrender to someone who had been chasing me down, who has reconstructed a tragic scenario into a happy one.

I’m 48 now, working long hours, living in a phone booth that is nowhere near being paid off and wondering where time went. But happy. Happy I barely escaped an early exit, and been have moved slowly up from a place that was way down. As I looked at the rainbow, I thanked Him for being more than fair with me, more than just. He has given me much more than I deserve. I can only truly evaluate my own set of data.

Technically speaking, a rainbow is a prism which separates light into its constituent colors. We have figured that out, and it is type of thing you get used to and take for granted. But looking at it and thinking deeply, it becomes a miracle of sorts. As is always the case, we have to, if given the gift of deep thought and contemplation, refrain from ignoring potential revelation being shown to us. Keep thinking about it. Keep our hearts open.

Today’s primary verse speaks of a God who transcends time, to whom 1000 years is like a day. The last 30 went by quick, that’s for sure.