January 2 Message - Making Rainbows
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
In the story of Noah, the first rainbow appeared in the sky after the great flood. The rainbow was a sign of God's covenant with mankind to never again destroy the world by water. This beautiful bridge in the heavens was created after a period of destruction and despair to provide mankind with a symbol of hope and promise.
It is implicitly understood that rainbows cannot appear without rain. First comes the storm, then in the calm moments when the sun reappears, the rainbow is seen. Into each life some rain must fall ....and then the rainbow! This message is about enduring storms and then looking for...and helping to create...rainbows.
Call to Celebration
Opening Prayer
Scripture Reading
and a season for every activity under heaven,
Message
Time is relevant and calendars are man-made utilities. However, according to the Gregorian calendar, the internationally accepted calender of our civilization, a new year has officially begun. Some purists claim that the new decade will not begin until the end of this year. However, popular culture has declared that the new decade began January 1, 2010. It is a time of new beginnings, New Year's resolutions and fresh starts.
The New Year is a time to start over and we are ready! The world is anxiously searching for better days. We want to put the last decade behind behind us and move on. The first 10 years of this century were not kind. It was a very turbulent time. There were storms of all kinds. The beginning of this century brought huge natural disasters -tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, volcanos, floods and other severe weather. There were man-made disasters as well - the world trade center bombing, the many terrorist actions, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the real estate crisis and the financial banking collapse to name just a few.
History reminds us, though, that turbulent times are part of the natural cycle. To everything there is a season. Our Father and Mother God have created consistent natural laws. Just like the cycle of human life, civilizations go through cycles of birth, growth, destruction and death. Nature, too, goes through its seasons. Each season has its own storms. After each storm, however, there are also periods of calm and sunshine. Here in Northern Arizona, we recently had an ice storm. It stormed all night long. The ice pelted down on the mesa and the wind blew in angry gusts. Power lines were torn down by the weight of the ice. Bushes blew across the roads. The next morning, however, the sky was clear and all was quiet. The sun rose over the mountains in a blaze of orange and pink. It shone so brightly on the icy snow that it dazzled the eye.
That sunrise was my winter rainbow. My heart was filled with calm joy and the peaceful awareness that all was well. At that moment I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be in life. Rainbows are the promise that better times are coming. Rainbows are the knowledge that there is a reason...that "all things work together for good." And rainbows are everywhere. Rainbows can be made at will. Just shine some light through water and from the right vantage point, a rainbow will appear. In the storms in your life, whatever they are, shine God's light...Divine awareness...through the rain. Then if you have the right viewpoint, you will be able to discern the rainbow. Once you master the ability to see that rainbow, you can weather any storm. Serious illness. Disease. Accidents. Catastrophes. Unemployment. Lost retirement savings. Death. Loneliness. Hardships. Personal problems.
Point of view is very important in seeing rainbows. You have to have the right vantage point...to look at the situation from the right angle. Move a little in the wrong direction and the rainbow disappears. Yeshua says one must be standing on a rock... a strong foundation... to weather a storm. Without the foundation, you will waver too much and the rainbow will keep disappearing from view.
A couple of weeks ago, I was made aware of the importance of viewpoint and foundation when I started reading the book, Night. Night is a work by Elie Wiesel. It is an autobiographical account of his experience, as a young Orthodox Jew of being sent with his family to the German Concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This book had come highly recommended to me and I was looking forward to reading it. However, it was so dark and depressing that I had to stop. I could not finish it. The recurring themes were Mr Wiesel's increasing disgust with mankind and his loss of faith in God.
Now, I suppose with all the horrifying situations Mr Wiesel had to endure, he was certainly justified in his feelings. However, his feelings were not inevitable. He did not HAVE to feel the way he did. His feelings were a choice of viewpoint. I have read other works by survivors of the Holocaust who choice a very different vantage point. Corrie Ten Boom wrote of her experiences in the book, The Hiding Place. She was a Christian who was sent with her family to a German concentration camp for hiding Jews from the German Army. She found a purpose for her life and a renewed faith in God during her time in captivity.
Dr Viktor Frankl was a successful Jewish psychiatrist from Austria. Like Mr Wiesel, he and his family were sent to Auschwitz. He wrote of his experiences in "Man's Search for Meaning." It is an incredibly uplifting book. His entire family perished in the concentration camp. When it seemed that everything had been taken from him, Dr Frankl found the rainbow in the midst of the storm. He realized that he had the singular power to choose his own attitude and no one could take that away from him. He chose not to hate and he chose to hope. He chose to survive.
Storms rarely announce their coming. Storms of life come with swiftness and can be devastating. They are unpredictable, capricious and create all sorts of debris. Survival depends on the right foundation and the right attitude. Only then will you have the vantage point to see the rainbow....the promise hidden in the midst of the storm.
Song of Celebration
Closing Prayer
