Right now, listening to the wind worrying and wuthering outside my window, and knowing this area is by no means the worst hit, I’m really not in the least surprised to hear that the Met Office has issued a red alert for high winds.
A photo snapped through a rain-dotted window can hardly do justice to the one I saw this afternoon, but it will serve as a reminder.
And of course, the Bible tells us that that is precisely what the rainbow is: a token of the covenant between God and earth, a reminder that “the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.”
This may be hard to believe, given the recent flooding, but there is a certain comfort in re-reading the part of the story after the flood has resided, when God makes the promise to Noah:
8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
(Text of Genesis 9, 8-17 copied from the King James Bible Online website.)
Of course the kind of rainbow I saw today is only visible when it’s sunny. For those who lie awake in the dark worrying about the weather, I recommend the book If You’re Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow by Cooper Edens.
don't confuse the narrator 