What's Up With God's Love & Rainbows?

On U2’s album All That You Can’t Leave Behind, Bono sings: “It’s a beautiful day, the sky falls…And you feel like it’s a beautiful day…It’s a beautiful day…Don’t let it get away…”

It is always a beautiful day because every single one is a special present delivered to us by God. String them all together like pearls and we discover that life itself is beautiful.

Life is beautiful because there are no mistakes or accidents; life is beautiful because it is a gift from the God who loves us intimately. There is purpose for each one of us. We have been given talents and abilities that are to be shared with the world.

No one is an island, self-sufficient or independent of others. Life is beautiful because it has meaning, depth and value when we share, interact and care for others.

In the hurly-burly action of living we dismiss all that; we often race past beauty, but in the marvel of creation God provides occasional signposts.

For example, rainbows are colorful reflections of hope. There is something sacred embedded in rainbows that excite our deepest instincts. A glimpse of one bending across the sky fills us with a fleeting sense of contemplation. In those rare moments, we ought to seize the opportunity to breathe a prayer of gratitude.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a rainbow as follows: “An arc of spectral colors appearing in the sky opposite the sun as a result of the refractive dispersion of sunlight in drops of rain or mist.”

It’s an accurate scientific description, but hardly awe-inspiring. Of course there is another source we can consult to learn about the real significance of rainbows.

In the Bible, God said: “I am giving you a sign as evidence of my eternal covenant with you and all living creatures. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my permanent promise to you and to all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with everything that lives. Never again will there be a flood that will destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.”

Our Creator loves us. We are created by a supernatural Being who expresses his love for us in a multitude of ways. Nothing is more profound or soul-altering; our Creator loves us with an all-consuming love that cannot be fully explained within the confines of human language.

When we begin to experience God’s love, we're free to walk humbly with him and to thank him for his generosity. God’s love comes wrapped in grace. We cannot earn it; there is nothing we can do to achieve the unmerited favor he pours into our lives. We fail again and again, yet God’s love remains steadfast.

A primal joy skitters through us at the sight of a rainbow because it stirs the eternal set within us. We cannot fully comprehend the mystery of eternity for we are fixed in time and space. Our ability to fathom the dimensions of God’s love is restrained by the nature of flesh and blood.

An ancient king of Israel and singer of songs grappled with these issues and wrote: “But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children - with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”

Storms may blow through our lives with devastating precision or we can get lost in a maze of bad decisions, but transcending it all is God’s love. He is forever drawing us into relationship with him; he is continually seeking to expand the circle of his influence in our lives.

What’s up with God’s love and rainbows is this: By design specifications, rainbows are to cause us to remember our dependence on the promise of God for they touch our capacity for worship, while at the same time demonstrating our tenuous earthbound existence. Their elusive wonder can disappear in a heartbeat, serving to remind us of how precious life is and how fragile life can be.

Life is indeed precious; life is indeed fragile. Each hour of each day ought to be treated with respect and importance. Ultimately our earnest recognition that life is beautiful produces peace in our lives. That peace enables us to take the necessary risks involved in handling life with all its challenges and unknowns.

It’s a beautiful day, so don’t let it get away…