Noah's Ark

I took a class in Seminary about the first half of Genesis, and when we discussed the story of Noah and the ark, my professor made a point that I have thought about ever since. He pointed out how so many people use Noah's ark as a theme for the baby's nursery, and yet the story of Noah and the ark is not a pretty one. The man was commanded to build an ark in order to save his family from a catestrophic flood! Who knows how many people and animals, hundreds of thousands maybe, drowned! And Noah and his family were trapped on this boat with only each other and the stinky animals for months and months! Can you imagine the smell, the noise and the fact that there is no one else to talk to but your family and animals? But then we get to the rainbow. God created the rainbow as a sign of his covenant to his people to never again destroy the earth with a flood, although I'm sure there have been many times he has regretted that promise. I am trying to imagine what Noah and his family thought when they saw the rainbow, what a beautiful sight after such a long, dreadful time on the boat.
I say all of that to prep you for what I saw a few weeks ago. My mom and step-dad came down to Galveston to stay at a friend's beach house, so after school the boys and I drove down and hung out for the evening. We were playing on the beach, and looked up and there was a rainbow. The boys were really excited. I don't think Cade had ever seen one before, or if he had he wasn't aware enough to know what it was. He was so excited to see one after learning how to draw pictures of one. This was the day that then tropical storm Humberto was coming in, so the skies were cloudy and it was really humid. My parents left the next morning to go back home to avoid the hurricane. So the next night I was driving to church with the boys for meetings, worried that we were going to get caught in the storm coming in. And we looked up and saw another rainbow! And this one was the entire arch, huge, across the entire sky. I could even see a faint one above the main one. The boys couldn't believe it and neither could I. I can't remember in my life when I saw two rainbows in one week. Jason had to rain on my party be telling me the summer he spent in New Mexico he saw one almost every day. I was in awe, really I was. I had just started my first week of my Beth Moore study at church, and we were reading about Noah, getting some prep work done for the rest of the study. And I just really understood the importance of those rainbows, maybe for the first time in my life. They are a sign of a covenant with God and his people. Scientists might say they are caused by the sun light hitting moisture in the air, or whatever they say, but we know that God made the rainbow as a personal message for us! It hit me that rainbows come during or after a storm. And I think God wants to remind us that He is still with us in the midst of the storms in our lives, and that HE ALWAYS FULFILLS HIS PROMISES! What a gift! No matter what we do or say or complain about, just like the Israelites, He will never go back on His promises to us! And just like Noah, when we feel like we are stuck on a boat with stinky people and animals and there is not an end in sight (I have been there!), we know that God take care of us, and has a plan for us! So next time you see a rainbow, really think about what it is! It will make your day!!!