A Thousand Rainbows
by Sarah Sutton
I am willing to bet we’ve all seen a rainbow. But have you ever flown through one? I did last month on a flight to Oahu. According to advanced weather models, an ugly low pressure system with rain and black clouds was moving in over the island the week Dave and I were supposed to be there with friends. There goes my week in paradise, I thought. But God gave me a promise and said not to despair as we flew through a myriad of brightly colored droplets before landing. In all of my years of rainbow-hunting, I certainly had never been that close to one.
The next morning, Dave got caught in a massive deluge during a sunrise photo shoot, but soon the clouds lifted. As the sun began to shine, I saw the brightest rainbow right outside the front door. It made me wonder if people there saw rainbows every day. My question was soon answered. They see several rainbows every day.
On the island, we noticed even if it was sunny where we were, it was usually raining a couple of miles down the road. So a rainbow was most always in view. I felt like I had seen a thousand rainbows by the end of the week. If you are reading the Bible through this year with the CRBC staff, you’ll remember the Scripture in Genesis where God sent a rainbow to Noah promising that He would never again destroy earth with a flood.
Genesis 9:12-16: And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Each time I saw a rainbow, I felt God reminding me of his promise of mercy, grace and forgiveness—something he showers on me a thousand times a day. I felt him treasuring me as His special creation. I smiled every time a rainbow appeared that week. Each one reminded me of Him and what an incredibly loving God and Savior He is to me.
With the spectacular scenery, how could anyone doubt God is real? This is a place where He has combined the greenest mountains sweeping down into pristine, sandy beaches sporting turquoise water, and an ocean and sky that stretch farther than I could see. Paul says in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
His power and nature are seen through His creation, and it is undeniable! There are two places on earth where I have marveled at the power of nature. One was Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park in Washington. As huge trees fall off the sea stacks offshore, the powerful and thunderous waves carry them to shore and toss them on the beach like they were toothpicks. I felt very small here as I marveled at the incredible power of the sea. The other place was the sea cliffs around the Halona Blowhole in Oahu. The waves smash into the rocks with such force that it tunnels up a natural lava tube from the ocean floor and explodes as it shoots sea spray 30 feet into the air! It’s so powerful and dangerous that no one is allowed below the barrier onto the rocks.
Psalm 19:1-4 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
The heavens and the earth do declare the glory of God! I always feel particularly close to Him when I am in nature. Rainbows are God’s promises. When we start looking at the dark clouds and think of life’s storms, remember God’s promise. I like the line in Kacey Musgraves’ song, “Rainbow,” that says, “There’s always been a rainbow hanging over your head.”
Author Bio
Sarah started her career at Council Road as a five-year-old in Joyce Gammon’s Sunday school class. She uses her journalism degree to write and edit for the CRBC staff, in addition to serving as Pastor Rick’s assistant. She has lived most of her life in Oklahoma but left her heart in Glacier Park, Montana, where she grew up. She and her husband, Dave, love to travel the world and share a love of landscape photography and musicianship.