Rainbows

It has been rather dreary around here for the past couple of weeks. It is towards the end of May and day time temperatures are not climbing into the 60’s. We have actually had some periods of early morning snow. Over the past two weeks there have maybe been 2 or three days where it didn’t rain. The sun has been a rarity and a cold wind has been blowing almost constantly. The days have been: gray, cold, wet, sunless, altogether a pretty miserable month of May. Perhaps it is the dreariness of the past couple of weeks that made something I saw a couple of days ago so unique and special.

My mother and I were on our way home from town and just as we got off of the interstate we saw something amazing. There stretched across the sky was the biggest rainbow that I have ever seen. Not only was it a big rainbow but it was a double rainbow. Now I have had some cool experiences with rainbows. I spend a lot of time outside and love to go out after a rain storm and look for rainbows. They are so awe-inspiring, right up there with the northern lights. This rainbow was so wide that you could clearly see every color in the spectrum. Not only that but above this rainbow was its mirror image, though it was faint, you could clearly see another rainbow inverted in color but tracing an identical path through the sky.

What made this rainbow so special was the fact that it stretched the whole way across the sky. I don’t think I have ever seen a rainbow that touched the ground in two places, this rainbow did just that. It rose high into the sky on our right, seeming to grow out of a mountain side and it stretched across the sky to our left where it dove downward again into a sunlit valley. At the top of the arch the colors got very faint as the rainbow made its way through the clouds, but it was a full rainbow wrapping my home town in its beautiful colors. I wish that I could have captured this beauty in a picture but my camera is broken so I can only hope that you can gather a picture in your mind of what this awesome sight looked like.

Seeing this rainbow got me to thinking about that first rainbow.
12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Gen 9:12-16

I can only imagine the fear that must have gone through Noah and his family when it rained after the flood. They must have remembered the fear of that first rain, the terrifying sound of flood waters lifting the ark off of the desert ground, the sound of dying people pounding on the sides of the ark begging for salvation, Noah and his family unable to save them because God had sealed the door. Talk about post traumatic stress disorder, the sight of rain must have brought back a flood (pardon my pun) of horrifying memories. Think of how they must have felt when the rain would stop and a rainbow would arc its way through the sky. They would be reminded of God’s faithfulness to care for them during the flood and of His promise to never again destroy the earth with water. To them a rainbow wasn’t just a beautiful sight it was a reminder of a promise a promise that from now on the rain would stop, that God would forever be faithful.
Now I don’t have any worries about God’s flooding the earth.

When I see rain I marvel at the beauty of the storm I don’t shudder at the thought of a catastrophic flood. When I see a rainbow I am not flooded with a sense of relief that a world wide flood will not happen again. That being said a rainbow is still a reminder of God’s faithfulness. I think of times when I doubt God when I doubt the goodness of His plans. Some times I find it so hard to lay my heart and my plans and my life in His arms. I want to take charge I want to be in control, what if God’s plans are different than my own? There is that constant question of why bad things happen to good people or worse yet why bad things happen to innocent people that can’t defend them selves? Is God really faithful? Can I trust Him? There have been so many times in my life where I have been left with these exact same questions. My faith is challenged and I felt so far from God.

It is such a blessing that in the midst of these crisis of faith that God is always there to remind me of His faithfulness. I don’t always get the answers to all of my questions. I still wonder why God would let bad things happen to good and innocent people. God though, always shows Himself faithful in my life. Just as He showed His faithfulness to Noah after every rain storm, with a rainbow, He shows His faithfulness to me with simple comforting thoughts and the blessing of support from fellow disciples. God always comes in at just the right moment and rescues me from my own doubt. He is always faithful. That is why a rainbow is so special. When I see a rainbow I am reminded of God’s promise to Noah, I am also reminded of God’s promise to me and of the rainbows of His faithfulness that He has left in my life.