Just because We can't see hope, Hope is not lost.

​Yesterday, I was standing in the scene below. Lost in it. Maybe wishing I could pack up my life and relocate it to that picnic table. Oh, the sunrises that picnic table has seen.

Then I heard a voice. "Do you see the rainbow?"

I turned toward the voice. It was an older couple sitting in two of those chairs I lug across endless fields to sit in at the boys sporting events. They each had their legs covered with blankets. It was clear they'd been there all morning watching the sunrise together.

The man was pointing up in the sky.

I followed his finger. Sure enough, there was the smallest fragment of a rainbow. It looked like maybe the rest of the rainbow had headed home, but this piece wasn't quite ready to go. It just floated there, overlooking the valley.

I looked back at the man. He was smiling, likely knowing in some way he'd given me a gift I'd have missed out on otherwise. I knew he was right - so I smiled back.

I don't believe rainbows appear by accident. I don't think they refuse to disappear by accident either.

In the bible, the first rainbow appeared after the great flood. It was God's way of telling Noah and his family the storm was over. You're good now.

In fact, God was telling them, as long as you cling to me, you will ALWAYS be good. Even in the storms.

In the storms, it's easy to lose sight of the rainbows. It's easy to lose sight of the promise that we will always be good. But that doesn't mean the rainbow isn't there. It doesn't mean the promise has been broken. It just means we've lost sight of both.

I love that in the middle of storms, God doesn't always pressure us to find the rainbows. He doesn't scold us - "do you NOT remember the story of Noah's Ark?!"

No. Sometimes God seems to simply understand. He understands we can't find the rainbow so he delivers us one. And not just a rainbow, but our own little sliver of a rainbow, personally delivered by a sliver of humanity bundled up in blankets.

I drove away with gratitude.

I drove away overwhelmed with hope.

Storms in life don't come without hope; they just make it easy to believe hope is lost.

Until the rainbow. Because there is always a rainbow.... 🌈