The Day God Changed His Mind

In a world of wrathful gods and endless storms, one ancient story revealed a different kind of power — compassion.

I took this image during a retreat in Devon during a particularly bad time. As I walked up the summit of a hill, I was stopped in my tracks and glad I managed to capture it on my phone. I love how the grey sky frames the rainbow, with the blue sky inside.

Today’s reflection sits with an ancient flood story, not as a children’s tale, but as a profound shift in how humanity imagines the divine: not volatile, vengeful, or triggered into destruction… but a God who binds himself to creation with a promise.

As you read, hold your own “floods” in mind (the literal ones in our headlines, and the quieter ones in your heart). And watch for what appears when the waters begin to recede: restraint, mercy, covenant, colour.

We live in an age of constant forewarnings.

One week, it’s the threat of war. Next, an economic collapse. Then the headlines turn to fires, floods, and failing crops. The great existential worry of climate change, once the defining issue of our time, now competes for attention with numerous other concerns, almost daily.

Yet beneath the noise, the floods still come.

Not just the literal ones that swallow towns and coastlines, but the metaphorical ones that sweep through our lives, namely the rising waters of anxiety, uncertainty, and loss. That’s where an ancient story from the past could still have something vital to teach us.

---