Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Haymim:
Genesis 9:16; “And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”
Why are there so many songs about rainbows,
And what’s on the other side, Rainbows are visions
But only illusions and rainbows have nothing to hide,
So we’ve been told and some chose to believe it,
I know they’re wrong, wait and see,
Someday we will find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers the dreamers and me.
– Paul Williams- performed by Kermit the Frog
The Muppets pretty well put me out of business as a ventriloquist. I mean who wants to go and see a guy with only two puppets when they can turn on the television and see many puppets all with different voices. But I hold no ill will for Kermit and his friends. I sing “Rubber Ducky” when taking a bath and I am reminded of the Rainbow Connection when I read the lead article in last week’s Time Magazine. If you had not noticed last week’s Time Magazine’s cover story was on the changing view of heaven. The article was based upon a book by a New Testament scholar, who is the same age as I am and considered a representative of my generation. He presented a Scriptural view of heaven and pointed out that when the Bible talks of heaven it is referring the place of God and the earth as the place of man. As Jesus taught us to pray: “My it be on earth as it is in heaven,” He was telling us that our heaven is here on earth and not in the sky. The Bible’s message of heaven has been distorted by various cultures and our present idea of a kingdom city distracts us from our true heaven which is on earth and our job is to make it heaven.
I have to admit this old boy did his homework and I can not deny his interpretation of Scripture. He may very well be right except for one thing. If heaven is the abode of God, then heaven is within me right now for Paul clearly teaches that our bodies are the dwelling place of God (II Corinthians 4:7).
After God destroyed the world and all life except for the ones in the ark he sent a rainbow as a sign of his covenant to never destroy the earth by water again. It is so unfortunate that the New Age movement claimed the rainbow as their symbol and Christians are now afraid to use the rainbow.
The Bible does not call it a “rainbow’ but just a “bow.” The word in the Hebrew is “qos” which means to be curved or bent. This is really referring to a bending in the sky. Rainbow is a modern term as it is a colorful bow in the sky seen after the rain. We put the emphasis on “rain.” Yet that is not the emphasis here. I learned in Sunday School that the promise from God was not to destroy the earth again by water. But the promise is really of a Messiah. When you look at the Hebrew word for “rainbow” you find it is spelled “Qof, Vav, Shin.” The Qof speaks to us of a sacrifice, the Vav tells us that this sacrifice will connect us to heaven and the Shin teaches us that this connection will bring us the passion of God. The writer of the article in Time Magazine covered all his basis except one and that is the rainbow connection. I have never been to heaven and for all I know it may be maybe it will be here on earth, but there is one thing I do know, there is a God out there who loves me and I love Him and when two people love each other they long to be together. The rainbow is nothing more than light diffused into it’s many colors. Light is our connection to heaven and earth. Jesus declared that He is the light of the world, He is our connection between heaven and earth and the rainbow is only a symbol of the beauty of that connection.
What is heaven? Where is heaven? I can not answer that any more than the writer of the Time article could, but I do know this heaven is where ever the God I love may be and I plan to make that rainbow connection one day
Have you been half asleep? Have you heard his voice?
I’ve heard Him calling my name. Is this the sweet sound
That calls the young sailor? The voice might be one and the same,
I’ve it too many times to ignore it, something I’m suppose to be
Someday I will find it, the rainbow connection, a lover,
A dreamer that’s me.
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