Overarcing

Raced back from Fellfield to enjoy strawberries and music on a pleasant summer's afternoon. On a thankfully incident-free journey, Lynn challenged me to put a verse of scripture in my blogs. Reading Christianity magazine, there was an article on how not to be embarrassed by Noah's Ark. Some Christians believe that there was a worldwide flood, and that there were all the animal kinds of the earth on the ark (including dinosaurs according to someone I know).
I've always thought it more likely that there probably was some kind of flood (it crops up in other ancient literature, not just the Bible). But that it was more localised. According to the article i read, there is some pretty good evidence for this, and it turns out that the Hebrew text uses words that are quite ambiguous over scales - e.g. The word for "mountain" can also mean "hill". It doesn't necessarily imply a worldwide flood at all.

I had a brief daydream about ship construction - a bad habit, I know. Decided the best way to build a football-stadium-sized boat is to excavate a big boat-shaped hole in the ground first, and line it with pitch, then cover It with wood. Without a JCB or ten, that would take a while. But since it didn't rain at all, should have been possible.

My favourite bit of the story though is the rainbow. (It fits almost ironically between allowing Noah to eat meat and him getting drunk, which are otherwise completely unconnected, of course!)

Genesis 9:16 (NIV): "Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

In this verse it sounds a bit like God happens to notice the rainbow, like it's a natural phenomenon, but he's just said that he put it there. (Because he had and yet it's a natural phenomenon too - causality isn't as one-dimensional as some would like to see it.)

Anyway, what are the true colours of the rainbow?





Isaac Newton saw 5 then added two more because God likes 7s. Indigo? He might as well have had Teal! It's a continuous spectrum of course, and people all see it a bit differently. But I like the idea that God likes colours enough to use them as a sign of promise.

Location:Shed