After the rain...comes the rainbow. Looking over my last post in March I see that waiting to get over winter, I had no visions of the storms that come with the springtime. While driving on a recent warm, but stormy afternoon, I was blessed with the appearance of 3 different rainbows in the fields passing by the interstate. It wasn't but a few days prior that I had seen a picture of another rainbow while scrolling through the pictures of the devestation from the tornado that leveled Joplin, Missouri. That one made me pause: a perfect double rainbow over the aftermath of the twister. Another caught my eye also: a sillouette against stormy skies of a cross still standing over the ruins of a church.
After the rain...comes the rainbow. I don't know where that well-known phrase originated, but it definitely is biblical in nature. For Jesus told us in John 16:33: In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. The world...full of heartaches, anxieties, worries and hassles. And yet, we get glimpses of heaven - in the sunny day after the storm, the spring after the winter cold, the new love after being widowed, the precious baby after the pain of childbirth.
He has overcome the world. Many times we get to experience that promise in the blessings that remind us to have hope, though sometimes it is only the hope of heaven that sustains us. For He has overcome even the final suffering of death. I always wonder how those who don't believe can face the sufferings we all face eventually without that hope.
But the question remains - how to negotiate the storms while we wait for the rainbows? We can learn from the Israelites who built altars along the way when they had an encounter with the Lord. Psalms 84: 5-7 tells us: "Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage...They go from strength to strength."
Therefore, we see that when we are being buffeted by the winds of life, feeling weak against the elements, we need to remember our blessings and trust they will come again. We need to savor them and build an altar of praise in our heart, recognizing that we've been assured, "I will be with you always."
We need to cling to that hope and abide. We need to take a deep breath and ride out the storm, drawing strength that the rescure is coming, which gives us the ability to hold on. As the old ballad tells us, "Hold on through the wind. Hold on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and torn. Hold on. Hold on, with hope in your heart, for YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE."
And remember - after the worst storm of all that flooded the entire earth, Noah was given a rainbow.
After the Rain
The rain is so cold.
The wind is so strong.
I'm hanging on Lord,
but I wonder, for how long?
You say you won't give us
more than we can bear,
That You're with us always,
That we can rest in your care.
But this storm disorients.
I feel no strength to withstand.
My fingertips seems to be slipping
from the hold on Your hand.
I don't know what to do,
what to think, where to turn.
Yet somehow, deep within
I know this is where I learn...
To depend, to surrender,
to know it's not in my hand.
That it's only here in the storm
where I'll begin to understand...
That You're sovereign. You know
the end of this path I can't see.
Please show me the next step.
Please reveal it to me.
For I've been here before.
And You saw me through then.
Give me faith to trust now,
to upon You depend.
Help me to weather this storm
with quiet dignity,
Knowing all is up to Your
all powerful divinity.
Though there be rain now,
help me to know.
You have overcome this world.
There WILL BE a rainbow.
After the rain...comes the rainbow. I don't know where that well-known phrase originated, but it definitely is biblical in nature. For Jesus told us in John 16:33: In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. The world...full of heartaches, anxieties, worries and hassles. And yet, we get glimpses of heaven - in the sunny day after the storm, the spring after the winter cold, the new love after being widowed, the precious baby after the pain of childbirth.
He has overcome the world. Many times we get to experience that promise in the blessings that remind us to have hope, though sometimes it is only the hope of heaven that sustains us. For He has overcome even the final suffering of death. I always wonder how those who don't believe can face the sufferings we all face eventually without that hope.
But the question remains - how to negotiate the storms while we wait for the rainbows? We can learn from the Israelites who built altars along the way when they had an encounter with the Lord. Psalms 84: 5-7 tells us: "Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage...They go from strength to strength."
Therefore, we see that when we are being buffeted by the winds of life, feeling weak against the elements, we need to remember our blessings and trust they will come again. We need to savor them and build an altar of praise in our heart, recognizing that we've been assured, "I will be with you always."
We need to cling to that hope and abide. We need to take a deep breath and ride out the storm, drawing strength that the rescure is coming, which gives us the ability to hold on. As the old ballad tells us, "Hold on through the wind. Hold on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and torn. Hold on. Hold on, with hope in your heart, for YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE."
And remember - after the worst storm of all that flooded the entire earth, Noah was given a rainbow.
After the Rain
The rain is so cold.
The wind is so strong.
I'm hanging on Lord,
but I wonder, for how long?
You say you won't give us
more than we can bear,
That You're with us always,
That we can rest in your care.
But this storm disorients.
I feel no strength to withstand.
My fingertips seems to be slipping
from the hold on Your hand.
I don't know what to do,
what to think, where to turn.
Yet somehow, deep within
I know this is where I learn...
To depend, to surrender,
to know it's not in my hand.
That it's only here in the storm
where I'll begin to understand...
That You're sovereign. You know
the end of this path I can't see.
Please show me the next step.
Please reveal it to me.
For I've been here before.
And You saw me through then.
Give me faith to trust now,
to upon You depend.
Help me to weather this storm
with quiet dignity,
Knowing all is up to Your
all powerful divinity.
Though there be rain now,
help me to know.
You have overcome this world.
There WILL BE a rainbow.
