"Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence." (1 Peter 3:15b-16)
As a tween and teen, I was obsessed with rainbows. I had one of those satin white cloud pillows with rainbow ribbons hanging in my room. I had rainbow mugs, rainbow socks (the kind with each toe separated), and rainbow posters. I had an overgrown button sitting on my dresser that said "I believe in God because of rainbows." My heart still leaps when I see a rainbow. So this morning was a special delight, as I walked and watched a rainbow appear before me, first only the left side, then a vague double; then, as the moisture moved in closer, the rainbow stretched across the sky until finally it was complete. It felt like God was giving the world a hug.
Yesterday I preached on this verse from 1 Peter, asking my congregation to think about how they might express, in word or action, the hope that is in them. And I shared the hope in me. If someone asks how I can believe in God when there is so much evil in the world, I ask them how they cannot believe when there is so much goodness and so much love.
I understand that a rainbow is a natural phenomenon that can be explained using science. It is not "proof" of God's existence, at least not in the way people who demand proof see it. But it is, for me, a symbol of hope. A rainbow, like so many beautiful things in creation, serves no practical purpose. It lasts only a little while, and it is gone again. Still, when I see it, my spirit lifts, and I am reminded of God's love for this world. I am reminded that the storm won't last forever.
The world will be different on the other side of this storm, but there will be a rainbow.
Hope. Where do I feel it? In this time, as in all times, I rely on Holy Scripture. Romans 8:35--For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And John 14:27--peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. And John 3:16--God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that he who be…