God's Story of Covenant
God does not forget. There is no such thing as God letting us slip their mind.
During the season of Advent, Mount Olivet United Methodist Church shares weekly devotionals with our community. You can read more of them here.
The following offering is from Ellen McDowell.
Reading: Genesis 8:1-19 NRSV
Remember when you were young, and an adult made a promise to you? Maybe they promised a treat after the dentist or another round of Go Fish if you helped with dishes after dinner. Sometimes, knowingly or unknowingly, that promise would be broken. Perhaps the adult forgot — but you didn’t.
As we get older, we learn to manage expectations around promises. This can be a difficult hurdle to jump when learning about God’s love for us. If you’re used to being let down by caregivers or parents, it is easy to transfer that hurt onto our perception of God.
One of the first stories we read in the Bible is of a certain kind of promise called a covenant. Earlier in Genesis 6, we read:
“I am now bringing the floodwaters over the earth to destroy everything under the sky that breathes. Everything on earth is about to take its last breath. But I will set up my covenant with you. You will go into the ark together with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. 19 From all living things—from all creatures—you are to bring a pair, male and female, into the ark with you to keep them alive. (Genesis 6:17-18)
The first time I read the story of the flood, I became focused on one word: remembered. I thought to myself, “In order to remember something don’t you have to forget it for a while? Did God ever forget about Noah?” I began to think about every experience I had of being forgotten.
But God does not forget. There is no such thing as God letting us slip their mind. When God set up a covenant with Noah, it was not like the other promises we’ve received throughout our life.
Genesis 8:1 says, “God remembered Noah…” but this remembrance was not out of forgetfulness. Instead, this remembrance was God taking action on their covenant with Noah. It is an active verb demonstrating the love and devotion of God toward their beloved.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are part of God’s covenant with all humanity — that nothing, not even a broken promise, can separate us from the love of God.
Pray: God, thank you for always keeping your promise. You’ve never let us down. Help us write a new story whenever our outlook on life no longer reflects that truth. Amen.