Rainbows, and the goodness of God

Wow! It's been 2 weeks so I have A LOT to update. I can't believe it has only been two weeks because too much has happened in the last two weeks and it feels like it has been a month. Students have arrived and classes have gone into full swing. The first few days of Dr. Bauman was really intimidating. I try to attend class whenever I can and the first time I did (which was probably the third or fourth class by this point) he picked on me. I was actually the first staff that he interrogated. I don't remember what it was about anymore- something about whether a good reader should be completely subjective to the reading material and be "changed" by the book, which would be in agreement to what C. S. Lewis talked about in his book Experiment in Criticism.

On last Wednesday ( September 14), I was having my day off and went up to Cellphone hill for some quiet time. Cellphone hill got its' name for being the only location close to the lodge with good cellphone coverage. It is about 10-15 minutes hike from the lodge. If I ever call you and tell you I am sitting on a mountain, this is probably where I am.

It had been a cold and dreary day, and on that day I was feeling sorrowful and discouraged over my own sins and over something that someone had said to me. I felt condemned, downcast, and fearful of God's rejection of me over my failure (though I know this is not at all the heart of God, that's how I felt at the moment). I sat down in a quiet spot, eating some chocolate biscuits a friend gave me, enjoying the solitude in the woods and soaking in the promise of God's faithfulness and grace from the book of Hebrews.

After some time, I decided to return to the lodge and play volleyball with the students. As I was packing up my stuff I noticed it was still drizzling, but the sun was up. I remembered something I read from a devotional a few weeks ago, about rainbows being a symbol of God's faithfulness.

The first time rainbows appeared in the bible was when God promised Noah that He would never flood the earth for the sins of men ever again, called the Noadic covenant. He confirmed that with a rainbow. In Isaiah 54, God said that as He promised Noah to never flood the earth again, He now promises those who puts their faith in Jesus to never be angry with them again.

Isaiah 54:
⁹ “Just as I swore in the time of Noah
      that I would never again let a flood cover the earth,
   so now I swear
      that I will never again be angry and punish you.
 ¹⁰ For the mountains may move
      and the hills disappear,
   but even then my faithful love for you will remain.
      My covenant of blessing will never be broken,”
      says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

While leaving, I asked God if He would let me see a rainbow. I waited for a while- nothing happened. So I promptly left for volleyball. After volleyball we had dinner, and then read Sir Gibbie by George Macdonald on the porch.

While waiting for reading to start, someone suddenly exclaimed "Hey guys...look! There is a rainbow" And sure enough, we saw the end of a rainbow. A few minutes later the rainbow extended over the mountains. My heart rejoiced, in the kindness and mercy of my God, who cares for and listens to the little cries of my heart, and responds with such lavish acts of love.