Sometimes, God intercedes gently, subtlety, no trumpets or cymbals, no pretense, just presence. A friend has two brothers, two sisters. One of the brothers recently faced a risky medical procedure. The family was on a conference call last week. They were deeply concerned.
Suddenly, one family member observed a rainbow, as they all talked. Many states away, one of the brothers, at the exact same moment, heard the start of Eva Cassidy’s version of “Over the Rainbow” on the radio. With 16 trillion songs in the world, and 80 million on Spotify, what are the odds? A loving, faithful family, the significance of that coincidence – and of the rainbow – did not escape them.
You know about rainbows, right? Not the modern notion that everything is political, but the real thing, the real rainbow, what it means? In the book of Genesis, outset of the Bible, Noah confronts the flood. Literal or allegorical, God rescues Noah and all who rode out the flood with a dove and rainbow.
The words are not passing, but of a permanent nature. Referring to the rainbow, God is said to have spoken. “This is the sign of the covenant…” between God and humanity and “every living creature with you, a covenant for all the generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant…” The rainbow is a promise, enduring symbol of God’s mercy.
In the lines that follow, the writer of Genesis expands. “Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life,” and “whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see and remember…” The rainbow is – and has been for millennia – a sign of unbroken hope, His presence. See, Genesis 9:12-17.
Nor is this the only reference to rainbows in the Bible, or to their message. Writes the author in Ezekiel about a vision: “Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it…an appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” See, Ezekiel 1:28.
And in Revelation, John sees a “rainbow” around the Lord’s “throne,” later a “rainbow” bedecks “an angel coming down from heaven, clothed in a cloud…his face like the sun.” See, Revelation 4:3 and 10:1.
Much of what we read, even in the Bible, is subject to interpretation – often subject to the imperfections and vagaries of our flawed human judgment, but the significance, goodness and complete connection of the rainbow to the presence and promise of a loving God is consistent.
Similarly, in science what causes a rainbow is consistent, recurring, and resplendent. Newton saw red, yellow, green, blue and violet, while modern descriptions add orange between red and yellow, cyan between green and blue.
A rainbow appears opposite the sun, dispelling discomfort, drying wetness caused by the retreating storm, replacing darkness and damp with light and warmth.
As a matter of physics, sunlight enters a raindrop, refracts (or separates into different colors) after hitting the back of a raindrop, reflects out the front again – toward the sun. Put trillions of refracting raindrops together, opposite a new and warming sun, and you get a rainbow.
Metaphysically, a rainbow is a personalized gift. The appearance of sunlight, reflected back in seven colors to our eye, is individual to each observer. Hard as it may be to believe, the rainbow we see is unique, slightly different from the one anyone else sees, because the angle of the light’s reflection is unique to our eye. The message from above is…as personal as your fingerprint.
So, who is to say what the rainbow really means, whether Noah’s trip on those high seas in the Great Flood, which ended in a rainbow and promise – later reflected in song – is as meaningful as we hope, as filled with hope as the Bible suggests? Maybe that is why we wonder and assess.
But here is something else to ponder. The brother’s family is one of great faith, their children’s names derived from the Bible, and the name of their first born male? Noah. Sometimes, God intercedes gently, subtlety, no trumpets or cymbals, no pretense, just presence.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
