Under the Rainbow

Rainbows have always fascinated me. They’re rare enough to be incredibly special, yet ordinary enough that we each have the opportunity to see them multiple times throughout our lives. They seem so real, real enough that we know they must have a beginning and an end; we seek to follow their paths and find the legendary pot of gold at the end. Yet they are merely shimmering bits of light, intangible, unreachable, untouchable.

Then, of course, there’s the promise of the rainbow. The promise of the Noahic Covenant.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. (Genesis 9:12-17)

The promise of the rainbow is a promise between God and man – a supernatural covenant. It is an unconditional covenant; not contingent upon man and his choices, but simply a promise made by God, regardless of man’s response to it. God will remember His covenant, whether man does or not.

This covenant does not promise that there will be no storms. It does not promise that no rain will fall. But the promise of the rainbow is a promise that I will not be destroyed by the storm. It is a promise that, as I allow God’s light to shine through the rain in my life, something of beauty can be created. It is a promise that my God is bigger than any storm.

Every time I see the rainbow, it feels like a little hug from God. Because the rainbow, to me, is a promise of hope.