The sky turned gray and dark as I drove along the mountain highway. Large clouds filled the heavens warning me an angry storm was brewing overhead. It wanted a fight and was flexing its muscles in shades of deep grey that seemed to boil and churn with blackness.
As the sky looked ready to burst, the heavy rolling cloud ceiling descended reaching out to the passing traffic with a howling warning of the storm overhead. What atmosphere called out and teased the sky to stir up such a violent reaction? We below would be victims shortly.
Then I saw it. Electric against the dark storm, the most brilliant rainbow I’ve ever seen. It appeared out of nowhere, astonishing brilliance spanned the sky in an arch of every perfect color. The width of transparent brightness shot out from a crack in the dark sky and bent to caress the treetops, and then touched the ground. The bans of rainbow brilliance filled the air, in vivid ghostlike form. The air opened up and took on the bands of translucent rainbow color.
It was a sight to behold, but greater than that, it was a promise to me. Such clear, pure color, each strand perfectly placed in unshaken harmony, is a reminder that joy can be hidden. There can be magnificence on just the other side of pain and heartache. The sky of your life may be dark and full of worry. You may be climbing a mountain of discouragement, feeling alone. Stay the course. Just when you least expect it, a breakthrough will appear.
The rainstorm may still be present, ready to unleash the torrent pent up weather, but just remember, hidden behind the darkness is the promise of every color opportunity. The guarantee made by God himself, to never flood the earth again, is a promise to us, through the rainbow reminder, that new beginnings always follow a storm.
Keep traveling. Just around the curve, your rainbow of promise will burst through and be such a joyful surprise. Look for it.