Sign of the Promise

After one week of rainy weather, I looked out our living room window and saw a section of a rainbow. I grabbed Derek and our camera and rushed outside to behold the most brilliant bow stretching across the sky.

From our apartment complex parking lot. I haven't seen many complete rainbows like this. The last time was probably more than 20 years ago!

It was a double bow, too!

Our living room window is on the back side of this building, directly facing the rainbow.

A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? No, just a beautiful lake and some men fishing. We wanted to see where the rainbow ended, so we got in the car and drove toward Hayden Lake, 5 minutes from our apartment. We were just in time to see it fade as the sun went down.

A week before we saw the rainbow, this picture appeared on MSNBC's "The Week in Pictures" (click on "June 1-8"). I thought it was so amazing I saved it. The photo is by Brian Plonka of The Spokesman-Review. The caption: "A brilliant circumhorizon arc appears in the northern Idaho [that's us!] sky on June 3. The rainbowlike phenomenon is a rare meteorological event that involves sunlight passing through ice crystals in high-elevation clouds at just the right angle."

The rainbow was observed both in northern Idaho and nearby Spokane, Wa. According to this Web site, the June 3 sighting "will probably rank as one of the brightest and most widely observed circumhorizon arcs." More photos of this here and here.

A little more than a week later, we saw our own "rare meteorological phenomenon." This picture was taken outside our co-worker's house when we were there for lunch. We would've missed it if it wasn't reflected off his car window in the driveway!

What about Rainbows?

I have always been fascinated by rainbows. My first "drawings" as a little kid were of rainbows. I drew tons and tons of them—just ask my mom. When we were young, my sister and I talked about opening a "rainbow shop" when we grew up, selling all things "rainbow."

Of course, these days, you'd have to think twice about putting up a rainbow drawing or sign. The meaning of the rainbow has been distorted and perverted.

In the Bible, the rainbow was a sign of God's love and faithfulness. God said to Noah: "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)

The great flood showed how grieved and angered God was at man's sin (imagine Katrina or the tsunami x 1,000,000!). In His mercy, He allowed Noah and his family to live. And although the Lord knew man's propensity to sin again, He promised never to destroy the whole earth again by another flood. That is a merciful and wonderful promise.

The majestic rainbow is also a sign of God's glory and beauty: "High above on the throne was a figure like that of a man...and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD." (Ezekiel 1:26-28)

"Here before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne." (Revelations 4:2-3)

If I am captured by the beauty of the occasional rainbows I see here on earth, I can't imagine how awestruck I will be in the presence of the Almighty Lord. His creation is beautiful, but it is only a reflection of true beauty. He is the origin of beauty and the epitome of beauty.

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face." (1 Cor. 13:12)

"For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." (Psalm 57:10)