While the Earth Remains

Good Saturday morning! Yes, it was hot yesterday, but I do believe this season has not yet been as hot as last summer was, at least thus far in July. Thinking of heat, I recalled, probably because the dear Holy Spirit pointed it out to me as God is so good at doing, the following verse:

“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.” Gen 8:22 NKJV

I noted that cold and heat received a mention when one might think that winter and summer would have sufficed. However, what if God wanted us to be sure to think of something else in this verse. Cold and heat may refer to the hot deserts around the world and the cold poles and mountain tops, or is it something else? Back in the younger days, some worried that another ice age might arrive. Cold was common in my youth. Winters were long, but not as long as they had been at other times in the past. Then, we began to see longer and hotter summers and the dire warnings went out not of ice ages, but of global warming.

After a summer such as we, uh, enjoyed last year, we might easily think that this warming trend will continue forever. Each hot day is a cause for worry that doom is just around the calendar corner. Add in a theory that all extremes of temperature are a result of human action or production and we have reason to believe in our human power. There it is. Always we seek to claim some dominion as a species. A dominion Adam lost long years ago. Can we affect the heat and cold of the planet, or are we just along for the ride until God says the end has arrived?

I guess that depends on whom we want to believe in: humanity as the supreme power or God as the supreme power. Scholars and scientists think that as far back as we can tell there have occurred large and small cycles of heat and cold. Right now we are in a cycle of warming, and for some reason this one is a result of human effort. At the moment, there is a cycle of warming that is a result of one human action - I finished a cup of coffee and I am indeed warmed up. Whew! Coffee in the summertime. When does the next cooling cycle start? I don't know, but I'll bet that some will claim it began as a result of their efforts, and others will believe in the word God spoke all those years ago. One thing has not changed - faith is still a choice to believe.

Have a wonderful weekend with Christ Jesus your Lord and friend,
Bucky