Can a rainbow be colored with black, deep brown and dark blues?

We typically think of beautiful colors contained in this visible spectrum… red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

In medieval days, there were five colors known as rainbow colors, but it was Sir Isaac Newton in 1665 that added orange and indigo. He believed the “harmony of colors in the rainbow must be similar to the harmony of the notes in a major musical scale. Seven steps in the scale; seven colors in the rainbow.” (LenFisherscience.com)

Rainbows…

Why do they make us smile?

A rainbow, any rainbow, small, full, part…and suddenly, we are assured with a hope. Well, at least, it defines me at the moment.The rainbow has long been a symbol of hope and assurance. The first rainbow occurs in Genesis 9:8-17; the Lord sealed His covenant with a promise never to flood the earth again. The skies became a backdrop for hope. Throughout centuries and cultures, rainbows represent hope and protection.

June 21, 2020, was a dark, cloudy, seemingly hopeless day for us. Tom and I were with our daughter Sharon and Ahnna, our granddaughter. There was no laughter, no joy. An hour earlier, we had heard upsetting and unsettling news concerning Fred, our son-in-law. He had been on a ventilator for a week in Vanderbilt Hospital with Covid. We just sat—watching clouds dump showers, then the rains ceased. After several of these starts and stops, a whisper interrupted my fearful thoughts, “Look for the rainbow.”

I jumped, “There’s a rainbow somewhere”. Three of us headed out the garage door. Tom added, “The sun has to be behind you.” There it was… to my left. It was as if the Lord whispered, “This is for you—a message of hope for today.” I cried.

I lived in the promise of that rainbow for days. Then there were times when the news from the medical team was too negative. I forgot the message.  I couldn’t hear the whisper. I didn’t trust the promise. Often, if I were still long enough and quiet in my spirit, I could hear, “Remember the rainbow.”

I cannot fathom that this big God loves me enough to send a message in a rainbow when I was so very low. But He did, and I accepted it as a gift from Him… even when I doubted.

We know that the colors of the rainbow are present in sunlight. A prism is made by the reflection and refraction of the sun’s rays inside the raindrops.  And these colored displays happen anywhere there are water droplets and sunlight at just the right angle. You can make your own rainbow with these two ingredients in your garden.

I’ve been thinking about colors— dark colors. Are they present in a rainbow?  I discovered there are hundreds, thousands… would you believe…a million colors in a rainbow!  That sentence deserves an exclamation point.

Of course, we cannot see them. But they are there. You know what this tells me?  That no matter what happens, no matter where I am, no matter if black wraps me tightly in its blanket or if I am being squeezed with deep brown cold mud, or blued with bruises of heart pain, there is a rainbow. If the Son light is in proper range.  Somewhere… there’s a rainbow… giving  hope, providing assurance that I will make it through this storm.

Hope is necessary to live . “We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy  name. May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.” Psalm 33:20-22

Fred describes his sense of hopelessness when Sharon dropped him off at the emergency room entrance… alone … to face whatever was ahead.  Five weeks later, she was allowed to stand at his window on the Covid floor, due to a change in Vanderbilt’s policy for ICU Covid patients. When asked later what that moment meant to him, “Hope stood at the window. I knew I could make it.” She was his rainbow that moment.

Tom and I made a rainbow…  I know…  it’s just water droplets and sunlight, but it was full of color and joy. I hope I always see a rainbow shining through my storms. It doesn’t mean  there will be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but it can direct me to the One who gives promises and a hope to journey through the storm.  And I want to make rainbows giving hope and promise to those who see clouds.

All it takes is Son light through my tears… at the perfect angle.

“But as for me, I will always have hope. I will praise you more and more…” Psalm 71:14