A Shining Promise

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting. —Jude 21, 22, NASB

The love of God shines down through the valleys of the Venice canals in Italy this morning and shines on the occasional person stepping into the early morning brightness. All are illumined: believers, atheists, Christians, Muslims, happy, sad.

Whatever the mental state, belief system, ethnicity, or personal identity, God’s love beams down, encloses, and physically breathes each breath into that person. “God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations’ ” (Genesis 9:12, NASB).

Long ago God doubled down on His covenant to us, His promise to never give up on us, to always be there for you and me. God made the promise to a worn-out, exhausted Noah, who probably had PTSD from being tossed about in a huge boat with loudly terrified animals, birds, insects, and humans for forty days and nights and then drifting around for what seemed like forever. I’m here, God said. You and your descendants will never have to go through this again. “I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall serve as a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth” (verse 13, NASB). The covenant of love always comes with a concrete gift of remembrance, and God’s gift is the shining rainbow that sparkles across a misty sky, glowing above us in the rain and cloud and eliciting joy. I have never heard anyone growl with disdain or grumble with irritation at the sight of a rainbow, but I have heard involuntary aahs of delight and even cries of wonder at the barest hint of those mysteriously beautiful manifestations of God’s immovable promise to all of us. That promise shines down on believers, atheists, Christians, Muslims, happy ,and sad; it shines down on all people, without exception. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16, 17, NASB).*