One of the many blessings about this house is the rainbows we see from our front window. Two or three times a year, when the sun is setting, the rain is falling and the sky opposite is just the right shade of grey, we see a glorious rainbow. And it’s often a full arc, sometimes with a complete shadow. It always makes me glad and often grateful if it’s been a bad day or two.
The poet Wordsworth wrote “My heart leaps up when I behold, A rainbow in the sky…” and that just about sums up my feelings when I see a rainbow. Various religious groups find rainbows inspirational. The Anglo Saxons living here just before the Sutton Hoo burial took place would have seen the rainbow as a bridge joining their gods with earth. To many, rainbows show a connection between our earth and the supernatural, a sign of joy and happiness.
To Christians rainbows are signs of a promise – a promise of God’s love and the hope it brings. The rainbow appears in Genesis after the Flood. God declares it a sign of His love for His people; a sign that he will never bring such a flood again.
The Autumn is often a good time for rainbow chasing. It has been a tough time for so many of us over the last year, but think of the rainbow, think of the promise of God’s gracious love. As you think of that promised love, allow the hope that comes with it to enter your heart. Then take courage and go on in faith.
George Matheson wrote a wonderful hymn – “O Love that wilt not let me go…” Despite his illness and heartbreak he wrote this most hopeful of poems. In it he includes the lines “…I chase the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain, That morn shall tearless be.”
Let’s get chasing rainbows!
Prayer: Loving, gracious Father God. Give us the hope to see the potential your love can bring. Make us aware of you, through the power of your Holy Spirit, when times are difficult and we feel all the skies are grey. Lift our hearts to see your rainbow and live in your hope. In Jesus’ name. Amen