Prayer

Unexpected God,

your advent alarms us.

wake us from drowsy worship,

from the sleep that neglects love,

and the sedative of misdirected frenzy.

awaken us now to your coming

and bend our angers into your peace.  Amen

Scripture

Genesis 9:8-17

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³ I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Meditation

Is God forgetful?  I know that for many of us we see God in Heaven keeping track of all the good things we do and all the bad things we do.  We hope that at the end of each day or at least at the end of our lives the good will outweigh the bad so that God will cut us some slack and let us in to heaven.  Some of us wish that God was forgetful.  We hope He doesn’t remember the way we talked to the ones we love, that He wouldn’t remember those negative thoughts that rush through our minds when we see that certain person, that He wouldn’t remember just how often I place my trust in something other than Him and His love for me.

What does God chose to remember?  According to this passage He doesn’t want to forget His covenant, His everlasting covenant; when He sees the rainbow He remembers.  Stop and think about how amazing this is? The Creator of the universe, the all-knowing Holy One sets a reminder of His covenant.  How can we possibly hold ourselves to a higher standard than this?  We are filled with shame when we forget His love for us and turn to other things.  We hide for fear that He will judge us in the here and now.  The truth is that God in Christ has removed this stain and shame.  He judges us not in the here and now but in the already done.  He is the one who sets a reminder of His grace and everlasting covenant.

We need that reminder as well. In the in between, the now and not yet, we can get forget the steadfast love of God.  We forget His pursuit of us for His sake.  That He has made us His people and that we are His sons and daughters.  When we forget take heart and recall that God has set a reminder for Himself.  Take heart that the one thing He does chose to forget is our unrighteousness.  He has removed it as far as the east is from the west.  Psalm 103:12