Genesis 9:8-17 (NKJV)

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your [a]descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

You can only see a rainbow when it’s not raining. You have to be looking at rain far away, with the sun behind you. The (oversimplified) physics is that you are looking at sunlight reflecting off raindrops.

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/refrn/Lesson-4/Rainbow-Formation

The rainbow is the perfect symbol for this covenant because you normally see a rainbow after a storm has passed. The sky has to be clear around you to let the sunlight through so it can reflect off the raindrops. A rainbow is a sign that the storm is over.

And what a majestic sign it is, which fits this one-way covenant to a tee. God makes a promise and demands nothing in return. The rainbow is entirely God’s doing.

Man can’t contribute anything—except to gaze at it in awe.

This is a beautiful example of grace. God bestows a blessing. God displays His power and His majesty. We watch and are humbled. It’s His show.

Part of serving Christ as Lord is understanding that He is Lord of everything—the clouds, the laws of physics, the heavens, and the earth.  Nothing happens outside of His will.

This is the foundation of grace. God is not out of His depth. While He is grieved by our sin, He’s not challenged by it. He can handle it. He has the ability to deliver grace. This is in stark contrast to our inability to forgive. We are weak. We haven’t mastered the situation, so it controls us.

Let’s ask for His grace to teach us to give grace ourselves. We can’t gain this from trying harder.

Only by the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit can we rise above our pain.