Hi all! How are you?

Some days it feels like the summer is passing very fast here. Other days it feels slow. A lot is being crammed in and I am doing a lot of new things as it is the first time in almost 23 years of camp ministry that I have ever been so involved. I have always had nursing babies and small children. This is the first time my youngest is old enough to run around camp with the big kids and not miss me. It is a new season of life.

What are you learning? Do you have time to savor the lessons God is teaching you? Or are you in a season of accelerated learning? I know there have been times that I have not had time to process and share before the next thing was upon me. I prayed about what to share with you because there are a lot of things that have stood out to me in my time with the Lord. I decided to write about the most recent thing, which I think is pretty cool.

Sometimes I am observant and other times I am just on a mission. I can drive past the same tree every day and not notice because my eye is on the destination instead of the journey. Then one day I look around and wonder where that tree came from. I did that with Genesis 9 today. I enjoy reading the Bible with my kids because we chew on little bites and they ask questions and I see God’s word with renewed wonder. Noah had just unloaded the ark, built an altar, and offered a sacrifice to God. 8:21 says that the sacrifice was a soothing aroma to God. (Isn’t that interesting? There are things that are soothing to God.) And God made the decision that he would never curse the ground on account of man again. He made a promise to all living things, man and animal, for all time that He will never wipe out all life by a flood again. He will never destroy the whole earth with a flood again. He created rainbows as a sign of that promise. He created it as a reminder to Himself. “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember my covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh… “ (9:14 and following).

I always think of a rainbow as a reminder to me and to you that God made a promise and keeps it, but here it says He made the rainbow to remind Himself. I am in awe that He is so involved that He says HE BRINGS the cloud and sends the rain. But, the fact that He reminds Himself of His promises is profound to me. Some of God’s promises are contingent on our response. They are an “if you…then I” scenario. But many, many of God’s promises are not at all dependent on us. He takes care of us regardless of whether we know or care. We are utterly dependent on His remembering… on His being perfectly faithful. And guess what? He is.

Image by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay