"My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; so it is now ..." So wrote Wordsworth. Now we know why. God gave the rainbow, our text informs us, as a sign of the unfailing presence and love of God who assures that the darkness shall never overcome us. Most of us have known the exhilaration of a sudden burst of sunlight through prevailing darkness, a splendid display of color across the sky, and the promise again fulfilled that beyond all darkness is light and beauty. Never will the forces of destruction overcome those who lay hold upon the promise of faith. So the rainbow breaks forth, sometimes in the sky above, sometimes through the darkness of a grieving, fearful heart.

Noah, that invincible mariner, represented the rest of us as recipients of God…