I Want to See a Rainbow!

Genesis 9:11
I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Isn't this rainbow spectacular?  My daughter, Sarah, snaps it from their backyard in South Carolina, and promptly sends it to me.  It isn't often that we see an arc as perfect as this one, with its "twin" shadowed above it.  Whenever I am blessed to see a rainbow, I'm always reminded of God's eternal covenant promise to us.

When our oldest granddaughter, Virginia, is little, she is fascinated by rainbows.  Every time she would sit down with paper and a box of crayons, I could bet dollars to donuts that a picture of a rainbow would emerge.  She must have drawn dozens of them, but I could only find this one in my collection of her art work to show you.  These were created when she was six-years-old.

I share with Virginia, when she is only four, the story in the Bible where the rainbow becomes God's sign of promise never again to destroy the earth by a flood.  She is duly impressed, her eyes widening with new wonder.

"Gammie," she says, "I want to see a rainbow.  Will you take me to see a rainbow one day?"

I chuckle at this.  "If I could, I would, Virginia.  But rainbows happen when we least expect them.  We simply have to be in the right place at the right time."

"And what's the right time and place?"  she queries.

"When the skies are clearing after a rainstorm, but it's still raining.  The sun shines on those raindrops and presto!  You have a rainbow!"

Virginia sighs.  "I still wish I could see one today."

"I know you do," I say.  "But keep hoping, honey, and one day down the road, it will happen.  Just have faith."

Virginia may have had to wait six years for her wish to be fulfilled, but when it finally is, what a splendid reward for her!  She is beside herself with awe and excitement, and tells me so herself in a text.  I ask her if she recalls what she longed for so many moons ago, and of course, she does.  What a memory she has!

So, my friends, if you feel in these troubled times that the storms are relentlessly gathered around you, dark and menacing, I pray you will cling to the hope of the rainbow's eventual manifestation, bright and beckoning, bold and colorful.

Our heavenly reminder of God's perpetual promises and His unfailing presence in our lives.

He answered Virginia's prayer, and He will answer yours.

Amen!