Many years ago, an elderly lady went back to an area she and her family had once owned. When she was alone and old, she sold it and went to the city to live out her days.
She came back for a final visit and called on a young family whose parents she had been friendly with and gave the mother a package of old, broken jewellery pieces, saying, “These are for the little girl to play with.”
The little girl was too young then to even remember the elderly lady but the mother gave the jewellery pieces to her to play with.
Eventually, all the pieces were used on dolls and toys and were finally lost and destroyed.
Except one piece. It was a necklace, completely whole and unbroken. It lay in a box for many years, disregarded and virtually lost but somehow, the girl kept it. Now she herself is old and she has rediscovered it, taken it out of her box of treasures and wears it. It binds together memories of three people, her own mother, the elderly lady and now, herself. Whenever she puts it on, it is as though she binds the three together in an endless embrace.
God himself has a necklace and he tells us about it in the first book of the Bible. Whenever he puts it on, he binds it around us to hold us and our world to himself.
God’s necklace will not wear out, or get lost or damaged through careless use, or discarded because it is no longer in fashion and it reminds him of something that is eternal.
It is the rainbow he created after Noah came out of the ark. God said, “I shall see it [the rainbow] and remember the everlasting covenant between God and living creatures of every kind on earth.” (Gen 9:16)
God’s everlasting covenant is that he created us to be like himself and to have a perfect world. In the first book of the Bible he places his rainbow necklace around us to bind us to himself and to remind himself in a way that is visible to us, of the eternal covenant.
In the last book of the Bible, God still wears the necklace as he arranges to fulfil his purpose, “wrapped in a cloud with a rainbow over his head.” (Rev 10:1)
It is a necklace of promise and peace that binds us to God. It cost him everything he held dear, even his own Son, so it will not get lost or damaged through careless use or discarded because it is no longer in fashion. He wraps his rainbow around us and our world in an endless embrace that says, “I will be their God and they shall be my people,” (Revelation 21:7).
Next time you see a rainbow, remember it was the most expensive piece of jewellery ever designed, and it was handcrafted personally by our God.
Elizabeth Price