“The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it….” (Genesis 9:16)

We, culturally, have taken the sign of the rainbow and disconnected it from both origin and purpose.

We’re tempted to blame others for that. But this is not merely a secular problem. We have looked to this sign—a picture of God’s promise to never again flood the earth in judgment—and we have made it about us. About what we see.

But, while the bow remains a generally hopeful phenomenon, we have to remember who was meant to do the looking in the first place.

Whatever the human angle might be, this is a thing of God for God, so that—when He sees us through its prism—He remembers His promises. He remembers His grace. He remembers His mercy. He remembers that, though we deserve the opposite, He has chosen to redirect the punishment of sin—and be patient with us.

For a culture that has roundly confused the sign of God’s bow, this is remarkably good news.

— Tyler