Rainbows in the Night

I was asked to do a guest post on deni Weber’s website, 

Today’s Encouraging Words. 

     Click here to view deni’s page and read how God has used rainbows to encourage her at key times, and currently as she walks with her husband through an intense health crisis in his life. 

      I had not known that rainbows are so special to deni when I sent my devotional to her. I love how God works behind the scenes to help us in our times of need. 

Praises and thanks be to Him! 

Rainbows in the Night

“I have set my rainbow in the clouds, 

and it will be the sign of the covenant

 between me and the earth”

(Genesis 9:13).

Rainbows! 

As children we thought they held treasures with pots of gold at each end. 

Don’t we all perk up when we see an actual rainbow in the sky? They can surprise us as we happen upon them. When rain has washed the sky and the sun quickly emerges, I look for a rainbow! If I am alert, I may see one.

Yet in this Scripture, we are told

 that God sets his rainbow in the cloud. 

His covenant is in the cloud? 

How can something so bright be shut inside darkened heaviness? 

Rainbows are a bounty arching forth as clouds’ heaviness can no longer contain the build up of water vapor. It spills back to earth as rain. The sun can splash prisms of color to celebrate this release.

 I understand the principle of clouds releasing rain but I never have set out to look for clouds.

Clouds pale, literally, when the sun splashes the prism of colors and a rainbow bursts forth. 

     What of the times our lives seem shadowed, overwhelmed with the daily challenges we each face? 

 We don’t always see the sun. Another Scripture helps me to respond to this question.

“[Nothing] will be able to separate us 

from the love of God 

that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” 

(Romans 8:39b).

God’s covenant with us has not changed. All his promises lie within us where he dwells. The clouds may loom heavy but he towers with more power.

God and His promises cannot be separated. 

Our circumstances, our minds, our feelings can become clouded. Fears may bring heaviness, so dark.  Yet  the light of the rainbow inside us comes from God’s Presence. He has promises to give.

I can water the promises into view, so to speak, when I relax and allow God to release the rain, to carry my burdens, to care for me by his shining forth. His light tramples darkness, releasing his prism of promises.

 I want to focus, not on the heaviness, but on the colors about to emerge.

Prayer
Lord,  

I rejoice 

that the colors of the rainbow 

shine forth 

your hope, 

announcing your everlasting covenant with me. 

My relationship is not with the darkness 

and heaviness of clouds, 

but with you, the Light in my life. 

Amen 

Photo by Lynn