The Double Rainbow

Not too long before the day disappears each day, I meander out to the chicken yard and shut up the pen as the hens have returned from an afternoon of roaming and shutting the gate to the yard provides them a measure of protection from nocturnal predators.  On my journey to do the task, I looked toward the dark clouds and was taken back by the sight of a double rainbow.  Brilliant and sharp it was there against the dark clouds.  And then, as I left the chicken yard, I turned to look again and it was gone.  Here one moment and gone the next.   

It reminded me of a book entitled "Tinker's Creek," by Annie Dillard.  It was in that book, at least if my memory serves me clearly, that I first was presented the image of God as "now you see Me, now you don't"  If I remember wrongly, it is the fault of a memory that stores up stuff but does not aways put it in the right file.  Tonight I will give Dillard the credit which I do believe is hers to receive for introducing me to this idea of God as one who reveals Himself for a moment for us to see, know, and hear, but it is for a moment only and for those who are paying attention.  I want to pay attention.  I do not always do it, but I have found that there are enough moments seen by paying attention to take the task of doing it full time seriously.    

The double rainbow was for me a sign of the presence of God.  It said to me that I am not alone.  It tells me that I still dwell inside not one of His promises, but all of them.  It reminds me that life is not out of control, but that He is still out there in the midst of creation and within me in the depths of my soul doing what He always does which is being faithful to His own nature.  I can live with this reality.  He has always been faithful and there is no reason to expect anything to cause that reality to change.  After all, the double rainbow came on the heels of the storm.