RAINBOWS REPRESENT HOPE

I'm writing for Five Minute Friday and today's prompt word is REPRESENT. 

Rainbows represent hope in our family.   God has given us rainbows when we've desperately needed a reminder that He is indeed still God, still working in unseen ways, still waiting to show up in power, still able to show up in power.    For me, a rainbow doesn't just represent hope but power - God's power to change a situation, to change me.  

We've seen rainbows on many significant days and at turning points in our lives, sometimes when we didn't know that it was a turning point.

And isn't that the way?  Sometimes, we just don't know until we look back how much He was working, what He was up to.  But in the meantime, the rainbow represents His overarching power and purposes, way beyond our understanding or vision.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts.  Isa 55:8-9

Today, I was in town and it was raining, yet again.  We've had so much rain lately.    There were heavy showers and then light rain and then the sun would come out.   

I spent most of today, all week actually, wrestling with something, struggling to believe that God is able to do what I need Him to do in this particular situation, even though it was His idea in the first place.  Isn't that the way?  He leads us down a certain path for His name's sake, and we doubt that He can lead us well.   Perhaps we think He'll abandon us on the way.  

I wonder if Noah doubted God while he was building the ark, or during the storm, or in the long wait before the boat landed, or in the waiting to see if they would ever be able to live on land again. It must have been very unsettling and disorienting for Noah and his family.     I mean the flood was God's idea, the boat was His idea, He provided everything needed, including wisdom, and watched over them the whole time.    He had gone before and behind Noah, and at the end of it all, He gave them a rainbow, to represent His promise for a new future, His faithfulness, His ability to bring that future to pass.   But I wonder if Noah doubted in the middle of it all.   

That was me today.   Following His lead, but seriously doubting that He would meet me there or more doubting His ability to do what He wants to do for me, in me.   He's so patient with my doubting heart, because He knows why it doubts, when and how those doubts were first established, and how hard it is to surrender to believe Him and surrender.   I was wrestling with Him, with myself, with my doubts.    I had the worship music on but still that heaviness wasn't shifting. 

I was nearly finished in town, and turned onto a busy road, and there ahead of me was a massive double rainbow with dark clouds to the side.   

Once again, the Father gave me a beautiful picture to represent hope and HIS power, well beyond my ability and my doubts.   And through the rain and through the tears, He finally got through to me.    Even in the pain and my own incapacity to trust Him well, He gives me a sign of HIS faithfulness, HIS ability, HIS power.   

Of course, you could say it was just coincidence or a natural phenomena.  Like the double rainbows over Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace after Queen Elizabeth II died.   

But I believe God is in charge of rainbows.  And for me, rainbows represent hope and power.   When life and storms are just too big for us, like Noah's storm, God is bigger and is beyond our inability and limitations and doubt and fears.   

I couldn't get a picture of the rainbow, though I tried.  It was just too big.    I drove to one of the high spots in the city, and still couldn't get a good shot.   My sister-in-law got a better shot from her place to the west of the city.   (Thanks so much, Dee)

But it's not about being able to see the rainbow in its entirety.  That doesn't change the size of it - just reminds me of my limited view.   It's about understanding Who put it there, in the midst of the storm.    I could see the rainbow in my rear-view mirror, as I was driving to a higher point.   I wonder how often we're consumed by the storm in front of us and can't see His overarching presence in our lives?   Until we look back.   

Oh to see it and believe it in the middle, in the midst of the storm, to lean into His previous faithfulness and to remember what the rainbow represents, even before we can see the evidence.   

And I said, “This is my anguish; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old.

I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds.

Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; who is so great a God as our God?

You are the God who does wonders; You have declared Your strength among the peoples.

You have with Your arm redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah  

Ps 77:10-15

I love the words from Mack Brock in this song, I Will Look Up

I will look up

For there is none above You

I will bow down

To tell You that I need You

Jesus, Lord of all

I will look back

And see that You are faithful

I look ahead

Believing You are able

Jesus, Lord of all

Jesus, Lord of all, oh

You're the Lord, You're the Lord of all