Day 19--Seasons and Rainbows

The continuity of seasons is evidence of God’s forbearance.                                                                                       -Bible Knowledge Commentary

I planted seeds for a fall garden last week.  As I almost always miss the window for fall gardening, I was proud of myself. It's the little things. August is such a whirlwind with school starting back that little things--like fall gardens-go by the wayside. But I really needed the continuity of a fall garden this year--need something to connect me to the outside and ground me in the here and now.

It feels counter-intuitive to plant colder weather plants when it's hot outside, but gardening is funny in that way. You anticipate the seasons before they arrive in earnest. The germination window of certain vegetables is like catching a wave---although you could plant them sooner or later, ideal timing allows you to take best advantage of the weather and conditions.

I threw an heirloom winter squash in the mix too-- just because. Even though it's much too late for a "hundred-days-until-maturity" squash, you never know. Maybe we will have an Indian summer. The seeds were getting old either way, and gambling with seeds is cheap fun.

Fall is on the move. I saw a tree changing colors and even shedding leaves the other day. There is a slightly lower dip to the temperatures at night, and the quality and duration of the light is gradually shifting. We still have some time, but I can feel it moving in...

Although I love autumn, it ushers in a more purposeful mindset than spring. Spring is full of the breezy anticipation of warmer days ahead, but fall walks with heavier steps dragging winter behind it. There is a sense of limited time, a need for preparation, a desire to wrap things up. The bees become frenetic, even angry, in late summer, the great bird migrations begin, and eventually the monarchs will move through too.

Tonight, this verse about the seasons floated into my thoughts:

"Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. And the LORD was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."  -Genesis 8:20-22

The seasons began as God's response to Noah's offering-- a fact I often forget.   Perhaps this is because the study of Noah is forever weighted down by issues of cultural flood myths, vegetarianism vs.meat eating, and the logistics of the ark.  As sensible humans, we just can't wrap our heads around the details--the how---the number of animals, the feeding of them, the flood itself.  

Sacrifice of Noah, Michelangelo, 1509, Sistine Chapel

In college, I remember a girl in my English 102 class who dared to assert that the entire episode was literal.  As our professor was clearly anti-Christian, her bold perspective made quite an impression upon me.  Really?  Some people are stupid enough to think that literally happened?  Wow.  I had no idea.  My friend and I had a good laugh after class.  Christians make easy targets.

But, I think non-Christians too easily forget that they believe in their share of "stupid" things too.  Horoscopes, though they may seem "fun" are fairly stupid if you think about it.  The idea that my personality and characteristics are determined by the position of the stars is laughably unscientific. Once I had a half hour conversation with a man in front of Earth Fare about the healing powers of crystals.  He was firmly convinced.  Is this not equally fantastic?  
I think we have to balance the mystical with the practical--the world is big enough to encompass both.  God will give us enough practical to believe in the mystical, but He won't give us the whole breathe of everything we want to know.  After all, a desire for knowledge is what got us into this mess in the first place.  There is a proverb that talks about the prerogative of God to include mystery:

"It is God's privilege to conceal things...."  -Proverbs 25:2, NLT

Kazuya Akimoto Art Museum
Noah's Ark After the Flood

For better or worse, I'm mostly at peace with the literal vs. figurative aspects of the Bible these days.  It's not that I've completely come to the bottom of all of these textual and theological issues, but more that I accept it as a mystery I can't fully unravel for now.  If you struggle with the same, I'll share a piece of my thoughts in this regard.

One of my first steps was the realization that if God is real and the Bible is a legitimate record of His workings, then He is fully capable of doing whatever He wants--including walking on water, feeding thousands, healing people, and yes....managing a bunch of animals on a boat.  

The faith piece has to come first.  He will reveal Himself if we look for Him, but he is not a song-and-dance man to suit our whims.  Jesus says as much in response to his culture's treatment of John the Baptist:

"But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,

'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'" -Matthew 11:16-17

God will not allow Himself to become our whipping boy.  He must be given a fair chance on fair terms.

But getting back to Noah...one thing I've never understood is why this story would be selected as appropriate for a nursery theme? It's an insult to the text.  I know the animals and the ark make a great visual picture for children---kind of like the first zoo--but how do we miss that the story is primarily about world-wide destruction?  Would we put a mushroom cloud on the nursery wall?  Yes, a remnant was spared, but how do we gloss over the catastrophic loss?

Shakespeare noted "All's well that ends well."  So is this the case? If we view the story as God's faithfulness through such a storm, it does place a different slant on things. 

And then, there's the rainbow.  Who doesn't love a rainbow?  It brings out childish delight from even the deepest curmudgeon.  It's like the first snow--a bit of magic in the midst of the ordinary.

On 240 nearing River Ridge--on one of our many to and fros (For the record, Grace was driving)

"Then God said, "I am giving you a sign of My covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed My rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of My covenant with you and with all the earth."  Genesis 9:12-13

This piece of commentary on the symbolism of the rainbow is worth reading and thinking about:

"The rainbow arcs like a battle bow hung against the clouds. (The Heb. word for rainbow, qešeṯ, is also the word for a battle bow.) Elsewhere in the Old Testament God referred to judgment storms by using terms for bows and arrows. The bow is now “put away,” hung in place by the clouds, suggesting that the “battle,” the storm, is over. Thus the rainbow speaks of peace. In the ancient Near East, covenant treaties were made after wars as a step toward embarking on peace."                -Bible Knowledge Commentary

So He's laid down his bow.  And, we live out this middle, this world of seasons, of rainbows, of in-between.  For a time.  For a season.   The seasons give definition to our lives, the edges of things draw attention to the center.  A character in the movie Elizabethtown comments, "Beginnings are always fearful and endings are sad.  It's the middle that counts."  I would add that the middle is defined by its edges, and He is certainly not done with this world or with us yet.