I drove back to Pittsburgh from IU this afternoon. As the afternoon progressed, the rainy weather did as well. The clouds in front of me, originally the "mashed potato clouds" I love so much, turned a bit more "impending doom clouds" than I don't like so much.
The sky turned darker, the the rain starting picking up. I looked in the rearview mirror to see that the sky behind me was a pretty pale blue, and the sun was starting to set as well. But the view in front of me was turning a grey-pink/orange/red mixture. I'm not sure I've ever seen it before in my life.
Yet as the "impending doom clouds" kept approaching, I saw a rainbow forming. What was really cool was that as I drove toward it, it got even bigger. What was even sweeter was that I realized that the rainbow arched COMPLETELY over my car, making a complete 1/2 circle on the horizon. And so this huge rainbow kept getting bigger, just as the storm threat fron the storm grew bigger. Seriously, it seemed like EVERYTHING was getting more intense: the shades of the colors, the clouds, the rain, the rainbow...
I couldn't help but sense the application of this scene to life. According to the Bible, the rainbow was God's visual promise that he would not flood the earth again, destroying all life. I can't imagine Noah's relief upon seeing the rainbow when it rained after the flood, considering the first time it rained, all life was wiped out minus his personal SS Minnow.
So what about those times in our lives, when we see the impending doom clouds and the threat of storms...do we see God's faithfulness, or only see the circumstances? Do we look for the rainbow, or focus on the darkening sky? Do we realize that God's faithfulness extends ACROSS the horizon, and cannot be fully hidden from us by any clouds, trials, demons, life, or death?
I don't, but I pray that God would show me how.
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