None of us can find rainbows without journeying through the rain
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: By the Rev Heather Stewart, Parish of Latheron
As I was driving to church a week past Sunday there was a rainbow in the sky. I noticed that I could see the beginning of the rainbow and the end but the middle was totally overshadowed by a massive cloud.
It is quite possible that I’ve seen this before, but on that particular day I was visibly reminded of the rainbow being a message of hope.
In the initial weeks of the pandemic lockdown, rainbow pictures and prints appeared in many windows to support our NHS and key workers and as a sign of hope. Many are still there to this day, but the very first rainbow appeared in the sky in the days of Noah after the Flood.
One of the loveliest sights in God’s creation is that of the rainbow, as each of the seven colours composing the bow stands out in its individuality of colour, yet each merges with the colour next to it. The rainbow usually appears after a storm, and that cloud obscuring the rainbow I saw was a visible reminder to me that life is not always without its storms.
Sometimes trials are just unavoidable. The sun is shining, the clouds rain-free – life happens and the thunder rolls. The clouds turn grey and menacing. None of us is safe from adversity. None of us can find rainbows without journeying through the rain. Yet God is always there if we but look beyond the cloud of despair.
Paul writing to the persecuted Church in Rome put it this way: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
My favourite hymn is O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go, and this verse – “O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow thro' the rain, and feel the promise is not vain that morn shall tearless be” – has given me inner strength during my “storms of life”.
