The Bow That Points Away
Devotional Blog Post by Pastor Jon Burnham
After the flood, when the chaos settled and the dove found land, God hung a bow in the clouds. Not a weapon aimed at us, but one pointed away. A promise written in light refracted through water:
I will remember.
We forget promises. We break them, twist them, qualify them with fine print. But God remembers. Every storm that passes, every sky that clears, there it is again. The color wheel of mercy.
What strikes me most isn't just the promise of "no more floods." It's the admission that we're still us. Stubborn. Wayward. Running from callings we don't want to answer. And God knows this. The rainbow doesn't say "because you'll be better now." It says "because I am who I am."
Kind of like Jonah, actually. That reluctant prophet spent half his story running from God's mercy (toward Nineveh, no less) and the other half angry that God was merciful anyway. If you've ever wrestled with why grace gets extended to people you'd rather see judged, you're in good company. I wrote about this wrestling match in
Jonah's Mission: Mercy, Message, and Metamorphosis. It's a short study, but it sits with the uncomfortable truth that God's mercy is bigger than our scorekeeping.
The rainbow reminds us: transformation isn't about us finally getting our act together. It's about God staying committed to the relationship even when we're at our worst.
So next time you see one arcing across the sky after a storm, maybe don't just grab your phone for the photo op. Let it be what it is: a love letter written in physics, light bent into beauty, saying
I'm still here. I still remember. This isn't over.
Dive Deeper
Speaking of storms and promises and showing up imperfect, that's what we do every Sunday at St. John's Presbyterian in Houston. We're not the polished megachurch with fog machines and perfect families. We're real people bringing our real mess to a real God who keeps His promises even when we don't. If you're curious what that looks like in practice, I've written some honest reflections about our community: Why St. John's Presbyterian Stands Out, Imperfect Faith in Houston, and What Makes Our Worship Unique. Come see what happens when a church stops pretending and starts remembering that grace is the whole point.
