Rainbows and Ice

This is the view I have this day as I work at my desk and my thoughts turn to rainbows. I am working on the Old Testament lesson for March 1, the first Sunday of Lent.

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 a 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.

Genesis 9:12-15

And so, with the thermometer hovering at 20 degrees and icicles in my window I picture rainbows and my mind drifts to this hoopeful prayer.

Reaching for Rainbows
(from Reaching for Rainbows by Ann Weems)

I keep reaching for rainbows…
Thinking one God’s morning
I will wakeup with rainbow ribbons in my hair,
With hurts painted over in hues that only angel wings could brush,
Black obliterated, chaos hurled beyond the rainbow and my vision,
The world created in a myriad of colors;
The hungry fed,
The dying held,
The maimed walking,
The angry stroked,
The violent calmed,
The oppressed freed,
The oppressors changed,
And every tear wiped away,
I keep reaching for rainbows,
But instead of colors in our storm,
Gray and black infiltrate, dirtying the sky,
And I hear human voices wailing in the darkness,
The never-ending darkness…
Just the same
I know the promise of the rainbow.
I keep thinking I will turn the corner one day
And find a litany of rainbows
Flung across the sky,
Hosannaing back and forth
Through all the ages and
Out into the eternity forever amen!
Every tear wiped away-
It’s a promise-
When we become rainbows to each other.

Rainbows....not a bad thing to be thinking about on a cold January day at the beginning of a New Year that promises more storms both domestic and international.