Storms and rainbows……..Rainbows and storms……

I’m sitting here listening to the morning thunder and realized how long it has been since I have written anything.  

I’ve just come in from feeding animals - earlier than planned due to a pair of dogs who just couldn’t stand being inside any longer....

While out in that wee early hour, I saw the most amazing and fully complete rainbow.  I stood there and wished for once that I hadn’t forgotten my phone so I could take a picture of it before the clouds covered it up.  It captured my heart in that moment and all I could do was look up awe and be so incredibly thankful.  

You see... it’s been a crazy season for me over the last year.  Many changes and many challenges.  Ups and downs and lots of driving time.  I would not have planned it this way, but that’s what happened.  I had been given lots of “words” about what this season would be. How I would learn about myself and God.  How I would learn to listen and see at a whole new level.  Some of them happened, and to be honest, I may have missed some.  That happens when we get distracted by the season and the storms that come along the way.  It may also be that as I move into the next season, I find the pieces of those moments missed by my eyes but not by my heart.  I will begin to see what I have learned and understand better why I had to come through this moment to learn them.  

I also realized this as I stood in open field looking up.

Sometimes God sends that rainbow before the storm.  So that we have a promise to hold onto while taking the journey.  

Something to remind us that we are not alone.  That we are covered.  

Perhaps that was the reason for all of the “words”.  So that I would take the journey and hold to those promises...  I have a feeling I was much more white knuckled holding onto the hem of His garment than the rainbow, but that’s another blog for another time. 

But I also things that sometimes God sends the rainbow after the storm.  When we are at the end of the season and beginning something new. That rainbow sends with it a breath of new air and a bit of rain to clear things away.  Even perhaps some thunder to catch our attention.  

I didn’t get my rainbow until this morning....  at the end of this season.  But in that moment....  wow.. in that moment.....   That rainbow was the most beautiful reminder that God does not change with the weather.  He does not run and hide because of an impending storm.  His love is greater than any season we can walk through. 

I know that I know that I know... Love has been with me through it all.  It has anchored me.  Love’s voice has spoken peace and His hand has reached out to hold mine.  I have learned patience with myself and with my journey.  I have learned places of identity that I could not have known, had I missed this season.  

Don’t miss the moment of your rainbow.  When you see it, know that you are covered by love.  Covered by the same hand that can calm the storm as needed and bring you through.  Hold onto the hope and the promise that comes with the rainbow.  And don’t let the storm that comes before or after that rainbow cause you to doubt that you are on the right path. 

Storms will come.. they always do.  But so do rainbows....