What a Rainbow Really Means
I love a Rainbow,
when it’s been a dreary day and the rain seems to fall unendingly. That’s when it seems brightest.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stood at attention as a bow appeared in the sky, but I can tell you about its significance what it really means.
A rainbow is a promise.
Even before I can remember, I knew it’s meaning. I’d heard it as a child and understood its significance. It is actually a symbol of a promise from God after He had destroyed the earth and its inhabitants in the flood. He made the promise to Noah and his family and their descendants (which includes each one of us) after they disembarked from their home of over a year. He has kept that promise!
God put this symbol in the sky and told Noah, “I do set my [rain]bow in the sky, and it’s a promise to you that I will never, ever again bring a flood that covers the entire earth. This is my promise: never again.”
A rainbow shows God’s glory.
This symbol also signifies the glory of God. In the vision Ezekiel had, he describes the glory of God as being like a rainbow. If we are to be like Christ, then we need to exhibit those colors as well.
A rainbow reveals God’s plan for redemption, reconciliation, restoration, regeneration, and reflection.
The promise is a reminder that God is a God of redemption. He has a plan of making things complete and new. What has been alienated can be bought back. It really can.
God has a plan to bring reconciliation, not only between men but between God and man. His plan includes redemption for those who accept that Plan.
God also has a plan of restoration. Where things are broken or dead, He restores life. Where life is warped and gnarled, He brings healing by restoring. He really does!
God has a plan for regeneration. When restoration takes place, there is also new growth that occurs. That’s regeneration. Just like the earth produced more plants, flowers, trees, and shrubs after the flood, so our hearts produce new life when we are washed clean.
He has a plan for reflection. God’s plan is for us to reflect the glory and majesty of a holy God just as a rainbow reflects colors of a prism.
When I see a rainbow, I remember the promise God made to Noah – and to me.
A rainbow is symbolic.
When Noah and his family came off the Ark after living with each other and all those animals for over a year, God gave them things to do. They were to move out and replenish the earth. They were to continue to worship Him.
A rainbow occurs when there is rain. It might not be raining where I’m standing when one appears, but somewhere, there is rain. Even in the rain, God’s promises are true.
Visible for miles around, it appears for everyone. Just as the rain falls on the just and the unjust, so the rainbow appears for everyone.
The rainbow is a symbol.
It is a reminder that we are in the care of a just and loving God.
Just in case we forget how faithful He is, God sends a rainbow.
It’s His reminder to us that He is always faithful. He keeps His promises and He has promised to never again destroy the entire earth with a flood.
When we radiate those colors and that glory, we’re telling the world that the God we serve is authentic and genuine. We’re telling the world about Redemption and the promises of God.
Redemption, reconciliation, restoration, regeneration, and reflection.
The promise of the rainbow truly symbolizes these. That, my friend, is what the Rainbow is really about.
