Rainbow Hope

“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.”

Genesis 9:13-15

After a late-afternoon shower in Scotland, as the sky began to clear Carol and I looked up and saw this rainbow. I thought to myself, “Who needs a pot of gold, when you can have Edinburgh at the end of the rainbow?”

I love rainbows. Admit it, you probably do, too. Parents excitedly point them out to their children, and vice-versa. People will pull over to the side of the highway, just to stop and look at the rainbow in the distance. I think it is part of human nature, when we see a rainbow, to point at it and exclaim, “Look, a rainbow!” Or if you're by yourself, at least you think, “Hey, look at that rainbow!”

People love rainbows. But I don't know anybody who is more enthralled by rainbows than the man in this video (Click here towatch).

Rainbows give me hope. They are a sign of a promise from God.

In the book of Genesis in the Bible, after the earth was destroyed by the flood God determined never to destroy the earth by flood again. The sign of that promise is the rainbow. Admittedly, it sounds less than hopeful that the rainbow is simply God's promise never to destroy the earth again by flood. But the way I look at it, this world means too much to God.

With all the faults of the human race (and they are too many to count), it would be easier for God to wipe the slate clean and start over again. But that's not what God chooses to do. God's love for you and me, and for everything on this planet we inhabit, is so wide and long and high and deep that he remains eternally committed to this project he started.

There is nothing that can ever separate us from God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord (Paul's words, not mine. But I wholeheartedly agree with them).

That's what the rainbow means to me. No matter how deep a hole we have dug for ourselves, God's love is deeper. No matter how far away we have run from God, God's love is wide enough to encompass us still.

I look at the rainbow, and I'm filled with awe and wonder. First, because rainbows are beautiful, and such beauty demands our awe. But also because the rainbow is God's way of reminding me of his infinite steadfast love, and his determination never to let go of us.

From time to time the thought has come to me, that across our globe there are always rainbows. Rain is falling somewhere all the time, and in some of those places the sun is shining through the rain to make the rainbow. I cannot imagine that there has been even one moment since the first rainbow when there hasn't been at least one rainbow on the horizon.

God's promise will never disappear, even as there will never be a moment on this earth when there isn't at least one rainbow somewhere.

The Irish say that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They can have the gold. With every rainbow, we have new assurance of God's love. That's enough for me.