Bible Readings
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: I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis 9:12-13)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16)
Thought
One of my favourite times of each day during the week is when Rob and I go out for our daily walk. We started walking along Mill Lane up to the A508 at the beginning of lockdown and have continued walking up and down the lane during the week ever since. We have now done the walk well over 100 times, the route does not change but the experience is never the same. On hot days we have walked in shirt sleeves, on cold ones we have been wrapped up in hats, gloves and scarves. We have often needed our sunglasses and other times we have needed our waterproofs. The scenery has changed with the seasons as we watched the crops grow and then be harvested. But it is the unexpected things that we see on our walk that give us most pleasure; the pheasants and hares in the fields, the buzzards and kites soaring high above us or the flowers blossoming on the verges.
We also often see light aircraft and helicopters. Some just pass overhead while others perform loops and tricks up in the sky. Last Thursday a group of four aircraft were in the sky, they flew together in formation and also separately making shapes. Sometimes they released a stream of vapour behind them as they flew. Rob and I watched as one of the planes drew a letter G in the sky and then two of the planes formed a heart. So it read G ♥. It didn’t matter why they had written G ♥ in the sky, the message for me was a simple reminder that God loves.
The previous day we had seen a rainbow in the sky. I love seeing rainbows in the sky, that mixture of rain and sunshine giving rise to a spectrum of colours. Most importantly rainbows always remind me that God loves me. As a child I sang a chorus which said ‘when you see a rainbow remember God is love, yes God is love, yes God is love, when you see a rainbow remember God is love’. So for two days running I had been reminded that God loves by something in the sky.
Sometimes we complain that we don’t know what God wants us to do with our lives and that if he would only write something in the sky, a message just for us, then we would be happy. Well God does write messages in the sky, maybe not always using aircraft but the rainbow reminds us that God loves us. We are loved by God and as such we are called to love others. As it says in 1 John 4 verse 7, ‘Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God’.
Prayer
Father God, thank you for loving us. Help us to live lives that show your love in all that we do. May we be people who love, just as you love us.
Amen
Song: God so loved the world (Stainer)