The Rainbow Connection

Rainbow: A scientific phenomenon where light is refracted through water droplets. The light is refracted once upon entering, reflected on the back of the droplet, and then refracted again when it leaves the droplet. The effect is that the light is reflected across a wide range of angles, and the level of refraction causes the eye to see the different colors of the rainbow. You must be viewing the light at a proper angle (42 degrees) to see the colors.

Rainbow: "And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.” (Genesis 9:12-17)


It has been raining. Figuratively and literally. For days. Weeks. Months. It is hard to see; the sky is overcast, dark, gray, and the horizon reveals little light. Every so often, however, the storm recedes, light shines through. If you see the sunlight in just the right manner, understanding what is going on, the brilliance of colors are revealed.

As can be seen in Genesis, God put forth the rainbow from the clouds, giving his people an everlasting Covenant that he would always preserve them. Over the course of history, it was often difficult to see, as His people have been tossed to and fro in the morass of a fallen world. However, the one thing unchanging, the one constant, has always been God himself. He is the alpha, the omega, the unchanging Creator and savior of the world.

And so for me, as the storm broke literally this week and I left my office for the day, a complete arc of a rainbow hovered over my head. As I drove home, I thought about what comprises the rainbow - it is simply sunlight and water. The one thing that is constant, the one thing that never changes, is the sunlight is always beaming down to warm the earth. Sometimes the clouds block it and sometimes the rain obscures the view of the sunlight, but it never changes, and never leaves us. If it did we would perish immediately. What DOES change is the lens through which we see it. Without the moisture in the air, most prevalent after the rain has fallen, and without the proper viewing angle, we see nothing. The sun is still there though - the cause for which we see rainbows has not changed.

Rainbows and God; quite an appropriate symbol for His everlasting Covenant with His people, and with me.

Apropos of nothing, this scene still makes me smile, 30 years after its making.