29 November 2016
Genesis 9:12-17 — New King James Version (NKJV)
12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow 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; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Over the years, it has been increasingly important to me to feel and view and escape into the sky. I feel closer to God – and to this world – when I am at least a couple thousand feet off the ground.
No matter what stress everyday work and life produces, I can enjoy inner peace by always looking forward to the next time I can climb into the cockpit to slip “the surly bonds of Earth.” To watch a colorful sunrise from a mile high, to bump along in rows of puffy clouds, or to hit the autopilot button and close my eyes as the sun flows through the windows….it feels like my spirit is floating free; free of stress, free of the battles to quash human suffering, free of all of life’s burdens.
The air is thinner but it’s easier to breathe.
There have been a few times in my half-million miles of flight when I’ve been blessed with the closeness of a rainbow. In those moments, I have reflected on the “message of the rainbow,” knowing that God has promised us that this Universe is connected by both nature and grace, that the rainbow is simultaneously a heavenly formation and an earthly emblem.
And, I am floating in the midst of God’s promise.