The Light on Bell Rock

For centuries, the Bell Rock reef off Scotland's eastern coast was a graveyard. Submerged at high tide and barely visible at low, the jagged stone claimed ship after ship. In the winter of 1799 alone, seventy vessels were lost. Sailors begged for protection, but the engineering seemed impossible — how do you build a lighthouse on a rock that disappears beneath the waves twice a day?

Robert Stevenson believed it could be done. For four grueling years, beginning in 1807, he and his crew worked in brutal conditions, sometimes managing only a few hours of construction before the North Sea swallowed the rock again. They hauled granite blocks, mixed mortar in freezing spray, and anchored themselves to the reef with ropes while waves crashed over them. On February 1, 1811, the Bell Rock Lighthouse blazed to life.

Here is what matters most: that light demanded nothing from the sailors it protected. It did not ask them to earn its beam. It did not shine only for the deserving or the grateful. Every vessel — merchant ship and fishing boat, British and foreign — received its warning freely, unconditionally, night after night.

This is the character of the covenant in Genesis 9. God does not negotiate terms with Noah. He simply binds Himself: "Never again." Then He sets His bow in the clouds — a sign not for humanity to maintain, but for the Almighty Himself to remember. The rainbow, like that steady light over Bell Rock, is pure gift. It shines whether we look up or not.