READ 2 Peter 3:3-10
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease (Genesis 8:22).
There is something refreshing and exciting about the change of seasons. In the fall, we like to make trips into the Colorado mountains to see the change in color of the foliage. The aspens turn a golden yellow and shimmer in the bright sunlight. The dark green conifers provide a sharp contrast to the patches of yellow on the mountainsides. This year we drove to Lake City, a remote mountain town that most Coloradoans have never heard of. As we drove around Lake San Cristobal and up the valley, spectacular views of aspens in all their glory delighted us in every direction.
During the time of Noah, God judged the world for its rebellion and wickedness by bringing a flood upon the earth. After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah never to bring judgment upon the earth again by a flood, and the sign of this covenant is the rainbow. Additionally, God promised that as long as the earth lasted, the seasons would continue one after the other, fall, winter, spring, and summer, and that day would follow night without ceasing.
We take for grant it that the sun will come up every morning, and that the seasons will progress in their usual order. These regularities day in and day out are a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness and provision for us. Yet we cannot allow these regularities to lull us into thinking that things will continue on forever as they are, as the people did in Noah’s day. God is patient with us during this time of constancy and orderliness, waiting for all to come to repentance. Peter tells us that eventually, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”
Prayer: God, be merciful to me a sinner.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
