Genesis 9:16

The Rainbow

And the bow shall be in the cloud. Genesis 9:16.

There have been many fancies in different countries about the rainbow. One is that where the rainbow rests there is buried gold; but go as far as you will, you can never reach the spot where the rainbow rests. Some people have called it a bridge from earth to heaven. The old Greeks called it Iris, the messenger of the gods to men, who carried the staff of peace in her hand. That was a beautiful fancy.

We know that the rainbow is neither a bridge nor a being. It is the rays of the sun shining on falling rain, seen against the background of a black cloud, like the screen of a magic lantern. The rays of the sun, which seem white or colorless, are really made up of seven colors. The raindrops act as a prism, that is, they divide the white rays into their separate colors, and we see all seven red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. You may see the same thing in a piece of glass with many sides, such as you sometimes find on chandeliers.

There are many lessons that the rainbow teaches us, but I want to mention just two.

1. The first is that we should look beyond the surface of things, that we should try to get into their inner meaning. You know you are living not in one world, but in two. There is the outer world of things which can be seen and handled, and just because it is so near and so visible we think it is the only world. But there is also the inner world of thinking and feeling, and that is the real world after all.

Wordsworth once wrote a poem about a man called Peter Bell. And he tells us that this man had wandered about the country for thirty-two years. Over hill and dale, by woodland and stream he had roamed from Cornwall to Inverness and yet

A primrose by a river's brim

A yellow primrose was to him,

And it was nothing more.

Wordsworth himself once saw a solitary primrose clinging to a rock, but he saw in it much more than “a yellow primrose.” He saw in it a proof of God's care. If God could keep that little lonely primrose safely rooted to the rock, then He could take care of His great, big world and all the people in it. If God could give the little primrose a new life every spring, then He could give His children a new life and a new body when they were done with this old tired body here below.

At some seasons the fields of Palestine are covered with bright wild-flowers till they are a blaze of color. They are so common that people are used to them and hardly notice them. It was the same in Jesus' day.

No one ever thought of taking much notice of the wild-flowers. Perhaps the children gathered them to make garlands, or plucked bunches with their hot little hands and left them to wither by the roadside. But Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they work not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” And He taught them that if God so clothed the lilies, He would also clothe them.

Long before men were on the earth the rain had fallen and the sun had shone, and before Noah's day many men had seen rainbows and had looked at them with curiosity, or fear, or admiration. But Noah, beholding the lovely thing in the midst of the dark mist and cloud and rain, saw in it the token of God's mercy. It was a promise to him from God of His kindness ever after.

So try to get beyond the surface, boys and girls; look for the hand of God in all His beautiful, wonderful world. The world is far more marvelous than a fairy palace if we have only eyes to see it. God has written His messages of love and mercy on every little flower that blows, on every little insect that spreads its wings on the summer breeze, on every snowflake, on every little fleecy cloud, on every crimson sunset. Have we eyes to read God's messages?

2. And the other lesson is that we should look for the rainbow in the rain. For the rain comes to us all, sooner or later, the rain of trouble and difficulty.

God knows that if the sun were always shining on His world the little flowers would become parched, and would wither and die. God knows that if the sunshine of prosperity were always shining on our lives, the beautiful flowers of kindness and sympathy and love and unselfishness would shrivel up and decay. And so in His love He sometimes sends us the rain of sorrow and difficulty in order that these fair flowers of character may come to perfection.

But there is always a rainbow with God's rain, and He means you to find it. He means you to look for the bright side

The inner side of every cloud

Is bright and shining;

I therefore turn my clouds about

And wear them always inside out

To show the lining.

Remember it takes the sunshine as well as the cloud to make the rainbow. Look for the sunshine and wear it on your face. Then you will be one of God's own sunbeams lightening the dark places of the earth.

It isn't raining rain to me,

It's raining daffodils!

In every dimpling drop I see

Wild flowers on the hills!

A glow of grey engulfs the day

And overwhelms the town

It isn't raining rain to me

It's raining roses down!

It isn't raining rain tome,

But fields of clover bloom,

Where any buccaneering bee

May find a bed and room,

A health, then, to the happy!

A fig to him who frets!

It isn't raining rain to me

It's raining violets!