Genesis 9: 12–17
It’s raining. Properly raining.
Not a dull November half-hearted drizzle nor a sharp fresh April
shower, but a torrential cloudburst. It’s teeming down. Coming down
in buckets, in stair-rods.
It’s raining cats and dogs and frogs and hedgehogs. Beating against
the windows, seeping under the door. It feels like it will never stop,
like it’s the end of the world.
Listen to it.
Be glad you are not out in it.
Well, I imagined that scene. But somewhere it probably is like that.
And some people’s lives feel like that.
So now imagine a rainbow. A beautiful complete arc, shimmering
slightly, full of colour and excitement.
It is quite beautiful and totally astonishing. (But for there to be a
rainbow, somewhere it is raining – even if somewhere nearby it must
be sunny.)
The rainbow is the promise that rain is not forever. It is a symbol of
hope, a promise, a sign of unity and covenant, bringing together
people of all colours and cultures and experiences and genders and
sexualities. We all love the rainbow and its unified diversity.
If you seek the rainbow, you will run towards the rain. So just enjoy
it. And give thanks.
Paul Johnson
Lord, when we see the rainbow, let us remember our
sisters and brothers on whom it is raining now.
Amen.
