Floods

Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life (Genesis 9:15).

Floods bring hardship, no doubt about it. Floods destroy homes, cripple businesses, and delay spring planting. Flooded roads cause time-consuming detours and cost a lot of money for repairs. Floods even claim the lives of people who don’t take them seriously.

Of course, the worst flood of all took place thousands of years ago. Evil was rampant everywhere. A world full of people had forgotten about the LORD or acted as if He did not exist. So God pushed the reset button on creation—He sent a massive flood that wiped out every trace of that corrupt civilization. Only Noah and his family were spared, protected in an ark designed by God Himself to shelter the few people who still treated the LORD with honor and respect. When the water subsided, God made a promise: never again would He use a flood to deal such massive destruction. The rainbow was the visible seal of His promise. Floods still happen, but they are localized events, tragedies we can cope with and recover from.

Floods can be tough to go through, but in God’s hands they can also serve as a blessing. The Great Flood washed away evil, allowing mankind to get a fresh start. The floods we experience today can do the same, if we seek the LORD to help us. We live in a material culture. Happiness is measured by what you have. But the things of this world can pile up into a wall that hides God from our eyes. Such walls must be torn down, lest we forget about the LORD and suffer His righteous punishment. A flood can be a blessing when it takes away those things which distract us from God. A flood can be a good thing if it makes us turn to Jesus for comfort, strength, and hope. St. Peter compared floodwaters to baptism—a washing away of sin so that we experience rebirth. We can have the joy of a fresh start, free of the encumbrance of the past. Our priorities are changed to line up better with what God expects of us.

I’m not saying that going through a flood is easy—far from it. But the rainbow is God’s reminder that even in the hard times, He is not punishing us as our sins deserve. The LORD is being faithful to His promise to limit any flood’s destructive power. If flooding has caused you hardship, praise God that He stands with you in this time of trouble, and look at this as an opportunity to start doing things differently as you serve the LORD.