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