rainbows

we were visiting dear friends in northern Montana and when we left, we were driving through a downpour in Kalispell. after the downpour came the rainbow. and not just one rainbow, but when we looked at it just right, it was a double rainbow, and the inner rainbow had a second, thinner rainbow on the inside of it with all the colors showing. i took a few pics and turned one of them into my header.

as we drove, the rainbows followed us south. we were able to see the entire arc of one rainbow. and at the end of our journey, we were able to see the place were the rainbow touched land in some trees. 3 amazing rainbow experiences in the span of an hour.

rainbows have always fascinated me. when i was a girl, i used to collect them. my grandmother made a calico quilt with some trees and a rainbow on it, plus a rainbow striped afghan to go with it.

when the first Muppet Movie came out, there was a song about rainbows. for some reason it made me cry. when i found it on youtube, it made me cry again... something about the words "the lovers, the dreamers, and me" touches a soft spot in me. it's probably because i am a lover and a dreamer.



maybe i love rainbows because each one is a symbol of God's promise: "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. I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind."

it's not that God needs a visual aid to remember his promise to not flood the earth again. His memory is perfect. but He lets us know with every rainbow that He *is* remembering to keep his promise. only God would do something like that, and only He would use something as beautiful and fleeting as a ribbon of color in the sky.

i don't think His promise was just about not flooding the earth again. i think it's God's promise that even when things in life are really hard and it looks like life will bring a flood of trouble, He is still there in the middle of the trouble, working to bring something beautiful out of it in the end.

and one more thought... the colors we see in a rainbow are all around us even when we can't see them. it takes a storm to show us what's really in the light all the time. so maybe a rainbow is also about remembering that even when we can't see God in the middle of our circumstances, he's still there, and sometimes it takes a flood of difficulties to help us see Him.