The best rainbow photo I ever took involved a hike in the Rocky Mountains. I love this decades old photo!
I thought about this photo because I’m beginning my chronological Bible reading plan again using Every Word: A Reader’s 90-Day Guide to the Bible. I arrive to the moment in Genesis when God places a rainbow in the sky as a sign of His love and promise to Noah never to destroy the earth by a flood (Genesis 9:12-17). The rainbow is the sign of the everlasting covenant.
I spend a few minutes thinking carefully about rainbows and what they represent. I love thinking metaphorically and symbolically, so of course I found myself delighted by the three factors present create that rainbow: refraction, reflection, and diffusion. Yes, I looked up each word! When we look at a rainbow, we can see light bending or changing direction as it passes through water droplets (refraction). The light changes when it encounters the water. It then reflects. It then diffuses.
I want to be that light that refracts when it meets the Living Water–Jesus. I want to reflect Him and then diffuse that love everywhere. Refract, reflect, diffuse.
And this happens best in trials.
Rainbows appear best after the worst and darkest storms. Without that dark backdrop of storms, you’d hardly see the beautiful rainbow in my photo.