Double Rainbows

Coming home from Lawton a while back, I ran through a thunderstorm on the Turner Turnpike. It was nearly eight p.m. and, as I neared the end of the turnpike, I had to pull over to the side of the road because I was so overwhelmed.

There over Tulsa was the most incredible sight—two complete rainbows in the eastern sky. I stood in the sprinkling rain, on the side of the road, cars whipping past me, and cried for joy at the awesome sight.

I thought of the awe and reverence that must have filled Noah’s heart as he saw the world’s first rainbow in the sky…a sign from God, a promise to the world that it would never again be destroyed by flood. Think of the joy Noah felt as he stood on the mountain surrounded by his family, having just been saved from the greatest disaster the world had ever experienced.

 

 

As I wept with joy over this beautiful sight, two full rainbows one inside the other, I thought of the storm I had just driven through. On the east side of Tulsa, that storm was still going on. From the back side of the rainbow, facing west, all that could be seen was darkness, rain, storm clouds. But from where I stood facing east, the setting sun shone on those same crystal raindrops, causing this dramatic sign of God’s love.

 

It was all a matter of my point of view. No one wants storms, just so we can have a rainbow, but it is a fact of nature that the only way a rainbow is formed is by sun shining on drops of rain. There is no rainbow without the rain.

 

Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

 

 

Somehow the sight of the rainbows made the drive through the storm worth it all.