Rainbows
July 31, 2024
It’s raining.
The sun is shining.
At the same time??
It’s time to look for the rainbow, my favorite little game as I take into account the rain, the shine, and the knowledge that the refraction of the sunlight through the clouds and scattered droplets of rain equates to a beautiful mural of color.
Today, the rain and shine are present at the same time that my rain and shine coexist. Deep hurt, deep gratitude. Beauty in it. God paints me a little picture as he paints the sky.
It’s the way He guides me to look at life. There’s a lot of rain, and there’s a lot of shine, both important to acknowledge as reactants used for a beautiful product to appear.
And, importantly, not letting the darkness consume. The rain. The clouds. Rather, seeing and acknowledging the darkness, deeming it necessary for the beauty to appear, letting the light refract and transform a mass of grey to a mass of grey with an arc of color that cannot go unnoticed.
So look for the rainbow.
My thoughts now sidebar into the memory of the condescending, sarcastic everything is rainbows and butterflies! that has been used in conversation with me, implying that there is avoidance of a reality that is less than the ideal, or something of the sort. Oh la de da! Everything is perfect, isn’t it? But, when I think about looking at the bright side of things, I do not mean ignoring the other side. I think it’s important to note the balance, not seeing everything as dark and dreary and being destroyed, while also not seeing everything as perfect and light and all good and fine and dandy! Both can exist simultaneously, and they do. I have experienced so many simultaneously joyful and sorrowful moments, and I know I am not alone in that. And there’s beauty in it. Because both are necessary to grow. Hardship is inevitable, and gratitude is key.
Ultimately, God is good. He is the artist. He paints the picture perfectly, and we are to trust Him.
So, rainbows.
In Genesis 9:13, God places a rainbow in the clouds as a promise to all living creatures on Earth that He will never again destroy all life with a flood. So, each time there is a rainbow in the sky, it serves as a reminder that although there will be rain, there will not be ultimate destruction.
I believe he promises this to us in both the physical rain and rainbow, but also in life. God promises us good, beauty, life. He promises us more than we could ever imagine. In the same breath, he promises us tribulation, persecution, and hardship. Ultimately, He promises that we will never be destroyed by our circumstances. We can trust that we will be bent but not broken, struck down but not destroyed, afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies [drawn from 2 Corinthians 4:8-12]. And Amen to that.
Hope lies in the beauty that we can only imagine at the ultimate end of our tribulated walk. Fighting the good fight. Joy in suffering, with God by our side. Life, all in. Darkness and light transformed into a beautiful picture. Rain refracting light into a beautiful mural of color.
Rainbows.
