Lessons from a Rainbow

I rode my bike straight into a rainbow tonight. And then it turned and followed alongside me on the meandering path through the riverside park. I didn’t know rainbows could move like that. It explains why, as a young girl, I could never quite find the elusive pot of gold except in a box of chocolates.

I’m going to let you in on a secret that I hold close to my heart. God sends me rainbows. And sundogs. I’m not imagining things. Or creating my own fairy tale. Rainbows have appeared too many times, at just the right moment when my heart needed reassurance of God’s care and presence in a situation for them to be a coincidence. God’s hug in that moment of sadness, despair, uncertainty, hopelessness, fear. For me. God’s promise that He was with me, holding my hand and walking through the pain and darkness with me. For me. The unmistakable sign that I was not alone. That whatever may or not happen to me or my loved one, I would be okay.

And so, this evening, when my daughter first spotted the rainbow, my eyes immediately rose to search the sky. As my eyes fixed on the colourful arc, I felt a slight lifting of my spirit. And then a wave of confusion washed over me followed by the question “What does this mean God?” I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel.

I was unable to instantly determine the significance of this rainbow. I was uncertain if God had a special message for me that my heart was missing. That possible breakdown in communication troubled me as much as my bouncing thoughts. There is more than one situation in my life for which I would gladly receive the assurance of God’s sovereignty right now. Was it a promise for this? Or that? Or maybe the other one?

Or was it one of those glorious times when nature, God’s creation, just catches my breath? Because certainly rainbows have randomly occurred on days that are just any other ordinary day for me. And when that happens, I inwardly smile at how marvellously God has designed every aspect of creation for our reverence and delight. There is always a message in the beauty of creation, and in a rainbow, for my heart to receive.

I was convinced that there was a lesson for me in that rainbow. Beyond a surface comfort or delight. God had me digging a little deeper into my heart this time. But I wasn’t finding a satisfactory answer.

It reminded me of my first day in hermeneutics class more than thirty years ago. When my instructor read us a Bible passage about a tree beside a river and asked us what it meant. A few students provided philosophical and intelligent sounding interpretations about strength and growth and nourishment and such. But my suggestion? There was a tree growing beside a river. And in this example, it was the simple, obvious answer that was correct. There was no need to look deeply into the text for something that wasn’t there.

I did the same thing with that rainbow as my classmates had with the tree and river. Tossing around different possibilities of what message God may have wanted me to receive but none of them feeling quite right to my spirit. I just couldn’t decipher the mystery of that rainbow. I was trying too hard.

We met a little girl with her mother in the park. She told us that it was the first time she had seen a real rainbow in the sky and not in a picture book. It was an exciting, wonder filled evening for them. Sharing in their joy made it a little more special for us too.

That’s what I remember the most about that rainbow. That it belonged to them more than it belonged to me. And that was okay. It was good. The story of the little girl’s rainbow was the first thing I relayed to my husband when I returned home. It had touched my heart.

I spent considerable time searching for the lesson in that rainbow. And then decided that sometimes a rainbow is just a rainbow. But always special. Always a promise. Always God’s love.

I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 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. 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. Genesis 9:13-16

Cindy