Whenever you see a rainbow (rainbow)

What a mixed bag of weather we’ve had these past two weeks. Instead of a warm and gently sunny “Primavera”, April has been a mad rush of wind and rain and scurrying grey clouds. But last Sunday morning there was a perfect rainbow arching across the sky, colours highlighted against the greys and blues of the morning sky.

Optically, the rainbow is nothing a distorted image of the sun, a hundred thousand raindrops rearranging the sunlight via reflection and refraction, into a dazzling display of colour. And every time it’s different. The image looks the same but the raindrops are constantly in motion so the rainbow like a waterfall is always changing. And one person’s rainbow is always different from another person’s because of the angle of vision from which you look at it. My own personal rainbow!! Each time you see a rainbow, it is unique in its own spectacular way!

According to the ancient texts, the rainbow came to symbolise the faithfulness of the never changing God and the continuity of the seasons, something to recall in these days of glbal warming and meteorological uncertainty

"As long as the earth endures,
.........seedtime and harvest,
.............cold and heat,
..................summer and winter,
.......................day and night
...........................will never cease." ¹

Whenever you see a rainbow, (rainbow)
Whenever you see a rainbow, (rainbow)
Whenever you see a rainbow,
Remember God is love.

I remember this simple chorus from childhood and I think of Old Man Noah standing out on a mountaintop on a clear and sparkling morning. He remembers the destruction and the violence of his day and the awesome chaos of the flooding. And suddenly the heavens explode with light and colour – sunshine mixed with rain, spelling out the message “ I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth.”

1. Genesis 8.22 and 9.9

How do I smell?

I say, I say. My dog has no nose.
How does he smell?
Terrible!!

So the old joke goes.

The Bible talks about us being the Aroma of Christ to people around us, and this was the theme of ECM’s Biennial Conference which took place over the past week, no two weeks ago, in Peñiscola in Spain. It was uplifting, exhilarating and challenging. We were encouraged to consider how we lived our lives, what sort of “smell” we were giving off – and whether it clearly reflects our identity as belonging to Jesus and having a real living relationship with Him or not. The amazing thing was that the main speaker, David Ruis, from Guatemala, came from a background in the perfume industry, and constantly referred to the preparation and marketing of a new fragrance as he talked about the “Aroma of Christ”

I have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks thinking about what aroma is all about. Why do things smell the way they do and how is it we use smell to convey certain messages, and I came up with the following :

Aroma and Identity – dogs explicitly use it to figure out one another when they meet. We don’t actually use our noses, and but we do the same, metaphorically speaking, sniffing around one another when we meet, to get some idea of what the other person is like. If we live like Jesus, we should “smell” like him, so that other people will know.

Aroma and Worship – so much in the Bible’s teaching about the Jewish sacrifices in the Old Testament has to do with the sense of smell, and the fact that God “enjoys” smelling the worship offered up by His people. We exist to worship and adore Him, and our enjoyment of Him comes from His enjoyment of our worship

Aroma and Warning – Poison stinks – rightly so. If it didn’t, we could easily be taken in and consume something dangerous. The message of Jesus has something of a “stink” about it too, a warning that if you avoid this promise of grace that He gives, there’s nothing left for you but a future apart from God and separated from His love.

Aroma and Pleasure – A woman broke an alabaster box of expensive perfume and poured the contents over the feet of Jesus, and the passage says that the whole house was filled with the smell of the fragrance. It is nice to be around people who smell good. Smell is sensual. We’re meant to enjoy the scents and aromas around us. Jesus smells good. Do I?

Aroma and Fruitfulness – Have you ever been in a crowded room when somebody peeled an orange. You have no idea where it's coming from, but you immediately sense the smell of orange, and a craving for the fruit is awakened within you. Well, that's how it is with me, at any rate – maybe I have a thing about oranges. A walk in the Algarve in October – orange groves bursting with fruit and the air is full of the scent of oranges. Fruitful lives should be “smelly” as we burst with the fragrance of Jesus in us.

Aroma and Appetite – our classroom where we study Portuguese is right by the little cafeteria, and sometimes, when it approaches 12 noon, the smell of food cooking sets the old taste buds going, and, by the time the classes end, we are positively drooling for food. God tastes good! But am I hungry for Him?