The reading for today is the post-flood story of God’s covenant with Noah and the earth. Believing that God is love, how do we wrestle with the dark side of this story that describes the destruction of the earth? This vow of God to hang the bow in the clouds might mean that this is a giving up of the bow as a weapon. The flood came with human failures, and perhaps that broke God’s heart, and on this end, God intends that all will be included in God’s declaration for the protection of creation. Perhaps when we see the rainbow we realize that the earth has been cleansed by a storm. It is a sign of hope, of new creation, of renewal.