The Bridge That Holds Even When You Forget It's There

In 2005, a young couple named David and Maria closed on their first home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Three years later, the Cedar River surged over its banks in the worst flood the city had ever seen. Water swallowed their neighborhood whole. They lost nearly everything.

When they finally returned to gut their ruined house, David found something wedged behind the water heater — their marriage certificate, still legible inside its waterlogged frame. Maria held it and wept. Not because the paper itself mattered, but because of what it represented. "We promised each other," she said. "And we're still here."

They rebuilt. And every year on their anniversary, they drive past that house — long since restored — and remember.

That is what the rainbow is. Not magic. Not decoration. It is God's marriage certificate with creation, hung in the sky where everyone can see it. In Genesis 9, the Almighty does something breathtaking — He binds Himself to a promise. Not because Noah earned it. Not because humanity would never disappoint Him again. But because that is who God is. A covenant-keeper.

Notice the remarkable detail in verse 16: God says the rainbow is so that He will remember. The Creator of the universe chose a reminder for Himself — not because He forgets, but because He wants us to know His commitment is that deliberate, that personal, that permanent.

The floodwaters recede. The promise remains.