I see rainbows in the unlikeliest of places and at the unlikeliest of moments. But, each time I do, they give me a boost and encouragement. God is in this particular drama of creation. Don’t ask me how. But I’m not alone – and there is hope.
I shared on Sunday morning recently how I saw a complete rainbow over the hospital in Ireland treating our son after an emergency admission last December. It would not fade. I had plenty of opportunities to take a picture of it. This came at a unique and stressful moment of waiting and adjustment.
Some years ago, I was exhausted helping co-ordinate the removal of some furniture for a refugee family moving into the heart of Prestwich. Bumping along in a van, I saw a rainbow of virulent and deep colour, especially orange and indigo, emerging, apparently, from the roof of their new home. This told me that all this struggle would be worthwhile!
One busy weekend before Christmas, I remember rushing down Kings Road, turning back for a moment, to be arrested by a rainbow that told me to slow down and appreciate the wonder of the moment.
The rainbow accompanies God’s first covenant with his creation. It appears in Genesis chapter 9 when, after the cataclysmic flood that destroys all life except for the refugees on Noah’s ark, God promises his world never to do this again. This is significant because it introduces us to the realisation that God chooses to enter into relationship with creation – God will not stand aloof or unmoved, but will desire its flourishing, and suffer with its suffering. This comes before the covenants he makes with Abraham and Moses.
Just as the droplets of raincloud in a rainbow act like a prism, displaying the differing colours that emerge from a ray of pure light, so the covenant with Noah displays the differing qualities of God-ly faithfulness and love that later covenants will apply in specific relationships. And that applies as well to the moments of stress and opportunity that mark our own walk with God today.
For us, at St Margaret’s, the 40th anniversary of the church’s rededication, after the devastating fire of 1985, will always be a resurrection-moment inspired, during the rebuilding, by a rainbow hope – God is here in the reconstruction, the fund-raising, the prayer, the fellowship, the worship in Church House, the mammoth sponsored walk and the tortuous process of faculty-application and building-permission. God has brought us this far – and he can inspire us for the road ahead! We just need to look up….and wonder.
Rev Steve
