After flooding the earth, God makes a covenant with Noah and his sons to never again destroy all life with a flood.  The rainbow is the symbol of this promise.  It is interesting that the covenant is just not with mankind, but with all living creatures and with the earth itself.

It is often said that mankind is God’s highest form of creation.  God even set man to steward over the earth and all living creatures (Genesis 1).  From the beginning, in the Garden, man was to care for the earth and all other life.

The rainbow was God’s promise to preserve and protect life, all life.  In the very end, God ill redeem and restore all of creation when He establishes the new heaven and earth.  All will be made whole again.  It is mankind’s responsibility to care for this earth and all of life on this earth until that day comes.

Our relationship like the earth is like the relationship between a parent and child.  The choices and decisions we make are (or should be) for the best interests of the earth.  And at times the earth is something we cannot control – storms, earthquakes, when it rains or snows, being just a few examples.

Even if most of us do not directly work with the earth or the other living creatures that inhabit the earth, we can make daily choices to do things like recycling and conserving water.  In our purchases, in how we vote, and in how we voice our public opinion, we can make decisions and choices that reflect other’s care for and use of the earth and it’s resources.  In these small ways we too can be good stewards of the natural world.

Scripture reference: Genesis 9: 8-17