After the flood, Noah and his family do not become gods. They are not granted immortality. But they are given a promise. A promise and a sign. God’s weapon, a great and colorful bow, is laid down for good in the Hebrew story. It is pointed up at the sky and away from us forever, to remind us every time the sun cuts through a rain, that any deluge to come will not be God’s doing. A reminder that God has made a covenant with all the descendants of Noah, which are all the human beings who will ever be, and with every living creature on earth, the story says, that God will not be our destroyer.