Genesis 9-10
Is God so forgetful that He needs to surround himself
with reminders? Is He so busy that, like so many of us, He has to put things in
a celestial day planner to help him remember? Is that why He places His bow in
the skies?
It is not so much that God needs reminders, but He places
reminders around us to let us know that He remembers. He does not forget His
promises and His faithfulness never falls short, but in this world our
perception might lead us to think we are forgotten. Indeed, in Psalm 13 the psalmist
asks, “How long O LORD?” begging to know how long his plight will be forgotten
by God, but clinging to God’s steadfast love – a love that will not forget us.
God uses reminders to place His promises before us so
that when life gets difficult – which it is bound to do because of sin and its
consequences – we are guided back to His promises to us. So the rainbow, which
we can understand simply as refracted light which occurs quite naturally, is
filled with spiritual significance. It mutely points the viewer back to God’s
Word: God has established His covenant with us and all the earth.
We have reminders of God’s covenant of salvation through
faith in Jesus which use very normal, even natural, materials to declare God’s
promises to us. In Holy Baptism we see God using water – simple-everyday-found-everywhere-on-earth
water – in forming His covenant with us. Water serves as a reminder of the
washing of regeneration that Baptism is, and how God delivered salvation to us
by water connected to and combined with His Word. In the Lord’s Supper God uses
bread and wine – comestibles found in every culture – to deliver the life,
forgiveness, communion, and Christ’s very body and blood for us. The taste of
bread and wine are the flavor of forgiveness! “O, taste and see that the Lord
is good!”
Does God do this to help Him remember? No, although He
loves the reminder. It is for us that He gives these signs to show that His
salvation is sure and real for all who trust His Word and Promise.
Lord, help me trust
You in all things and receive Your reminders in Word and Sacrament as marks
that deliver your grace to me. Amen.
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