This is not just a children’s story. From Genesis chapters 3 – 6 , the effects of sin
reach up even into the heavens, with the ‘sons of God’ (some sort of angels?)
coming down to human women. God sees that violence is multiplying, and that
human hearts are set on evil and God grieves. God hurts over all that he has
made, and how it has turned out. He decides to reverse the steps of creation,
going back to earth covered with water, and restart, using Noah and the ark.
After more than a year of flood waters rising, flood waters receding, ground drying
out and growth re-emerging, Noah finally leaves the ark, builds an altar, and
makes a thank offering. God has obviously done some serious reflecting all this
time. He realises that destruction won’t stop human sin, so God commits to never
acting that way again. He gives the rainbow as the sign that he will continue to
bless earth and its people and never again end all life. God changes: he commits
to holding his pain and distress, and dealing with it in a different way. Later, his
own Son will come down from heaven, born of Mary, to carry our sin into death on
the cross, to bring us forgiveness and new life. God commits to transforming us
from the inside.
It’s so easy to get caught up in doom or gloom. It’s so easy in bad times to feel
that God has turned away from us, or that God is glaring at us. At those times we
need to remember the sign of the rainbow, and we need to remember that the Son
of God became one with us. God never gives up on us. He is faithful and works
with us so that there are new beginnings and new learnings out of pain and
hurt.