Chronicling Rosh Hashanah pictorially from dawn to dusk on September 6th, the one thing I regret not capturing is the torrential downpour in the afternoon. It came so suddenly and so swiftly that I was drenched from head to toe trying to close the windows in the mighty strong wind, right in my home. At least, the puddles of water in the field afterwards kept a record.
In the evening (the actual start of Rosh Hashanah), the dove-like cloud sighting heralds renewed faith and the promise of special new beginnings. Especially assuring against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and in the aftermath of the August 31st U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the recent New Orleans flood, the Haiti earthquake; and turmoil across the world.
Dubbed the Hebrew civil new year, Rosh Hashana is the anniversary of the creation of man, Adam and Eve.
6,000 years ago, when God called sun, moon and stars, lands and seas, flora and fauna into being, He said it was all good. But when He made man and woman, He marvelled and said that it was VERY good.
By the time of Noah, God was so grieved at the gross wickedness and the sinful imagination of mankind that He regretted making them. The deluge that God sent decimated the entire human population except for Noah who found grace in God's eyes, and his family of seven. This first reset didn't stop man from persisting in their sinful ways.
Some 4,000 years later, God sent His son Jesus Christ to save us from our sins and restore the glory He intended for us to inhabit and carry.
I pray that when God sees us today, He will sit back and still say, "You are VERY GOOD."
May Rosh Hashanah this year be the re-living of our first days in the Garden of Eden, with God our Maker and this time, our Saviour, and reconciled Lover too. May it be the grand beginning of glorious endings. Shana Tova!
P.S.
After receiving this blog post, my cousin sent me this shot of the September 6th rainfall. A rare take by her son who happened to be on leave that day. What a beautiful ending to my blog post. Thanks Seok and Linus. And thanks to the Lord for this first miracle of filling in the gap in the first days of Rosh Hashanah. Hallelujah!
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise." Isaiah 43:18-21
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