Thought for the Month - December 2017

"Paint the whole world with a rainbow" by Barry Adair
(Promises)

The title of this month's Thought is a line from a song from my childhood. "Paint the whole world with a rainbow" is the theme tune of the former children's TV programme "Rainbow"…

Up above the streets and houses, rainbow climbing high,
Everyone can see it smiling over the sky.
Paint - the - whole - world - with - a - rainbow.

And apologies to those who remember the TV programme as that song will now be something of an 'ear worm' for the rest of the day.

Yes, I was thinking about rainbows this month. As a kid I still remember chasing the end of a rainbow so that I could find the pot of gold at the end of it. Someone had told me this and I simply believed them! As an adult, I now know there is no mysterious pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but it may still conceal a mystery, more on this later. In nature, rainbows are produced by the reflection and refraction of the rays of the sun shining on falling rain, and they are a beautiful natural phenomenon. Natural light is made up 7 colours and it is these 7 vibrant colours we see in every rainbow.

I'm not sure what put rainbows into my head this month but with all the rain recently in Northern Ireland I did witness one of two. I was also thinking that the LGBT community has taken the rainbow symbol as their own these days. Now the rainbow is a sign, but it has nothing to do with the LGBT community. I will let the Bible explain.

"I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth…" (Genesis 9: 11-13, emphasis mine)

The rainbow is God's bow in the sky. And it is a sign of a promise between God and mankind that the earth would never again be destroyed by flood. Not that many people actually believe that a world-wide flood occurred in the past! I'm not sure where they think the millions of fossils, coal seams and huge oil deposits came from, mind you. At least geologists do now acknowledge that all the mountains of the world have been under water at some time in the past. As for me, if the Lord Jesus Christ believed in Noah's flood, then that's good enough for me.

"For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be." (Matthew 24:39, emphasis mine)

If I think back to Noah and his extended family leaving the ark after over a year inside, what on earth did they think whenever they viewed that first rainbow? They had just come through a terrifying experience, one which no-one had ever experienced or would ever experience again. Just think of the darkness within the ark. Think of it being violently tossed about to and fro when "all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened." That first rainbow must have been the most beautiful sight they had ever seen! They had come through a truly cataclysmic event and, by the grace of God, had survived intact. For Noah and the other 7 on-board, the rainbow was a heavenly symbol of hope. Are you going through a particularly tough time at the moment? Do you feel that there is no let-up in your situation? Is calamity all around? Is 'hope' an alien concept right now? I would want to remind you that if you are a child of God then you are never on your own. You may not feel it but please be assured of this fact. "…for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6)

And when God makes a promise, unlike us, He keeps it! If God says He will never leave you nor forsake you, then He will never leave you nor forsake you.

God has rescued His saints all throughout history. Daniel was in the lion's den for a night, Jonah was in the belly of the big fish for 3 days and Noah and family were cocooned in the ark for over a year. But God intervened in every situation and brought His people through to the other side. God loves us and on-going calamity within our lives is not part of His plan…

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.' (Jeremiah 29:11)

In thinking of that first rainbow after the flood, as Bono sings in U2's song 'Beautiful Day', "after the flood, all the colours came out". There is light after dark, there is colour after grey days and there is hope for tomorrow.

As for that mystery I mentioned, did you ever wonder why the rainbow hadn't appeared before Noah exited the ark? What about during the many years prior to the flood? All it takes for a rainbow to form is light and rainfall. So why no rainbows? Or, is it just that rainbows were present but God hadn't allocated any significance to them before? Like all questions where there is no definite answer given in the Bible, you can read many possible theories. One such theory is very intriguing and suggests that it had never actually rained before the flood. And without "proper" rain, rainbows would never have formed.

Today, God still paints the whole world with a rainbow. He sends His rain to fall on both the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). His "rainbow promise" remains to this day. And His love, especially for His people, is ever-present. Those of us who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus have a special place in His plans. And God's promises are a wonderful thing to hold on to, especially if your world is spinning around you. And even if we lose our grip of Him, He never lets go of us…

"…neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8: 38-39)

May God's rainbow in the sky remind you of His wonderful promises and also of His wonderful love for His less-than-wonderful people!

God is faithful, who has called us,
To His Son's communion real;
When we share in Christ our wisdom,
He on us His image seals;
Attributes of God wrought in us
Make us righteous, holy, bright!
Soon we, too, will be a rainbow
For His pleasure, His delight!
(Anon)

Until next month (DV)…

Are you SURE that you have your place booked in Heaven? Read this if you're not!