The clouds rolled in, the thunder clapped in might, rain drove down first straight down, then at 40 degrees, then almost horizontally, and finally it all stopped. Silence after the crashing of the weather system, and cracking through the determined clouds, racing away as quickly as they approached, a few rays of sunshine. In the distance I saw the colours appear. I knew what was ahead. The right angle and the sun beaming, into the clouds and mist, there suddenly appeared... a rainbow.
I love rainbows. Here's one in Jerusalem photographed in an entire album of rainbows. Click here
The other day here in Sydney, and worldwide was a day about which I knew nothing when I was a kid. Little Jewish kids don't care much about Easter or Ash Wednesday or really most other religions. All over Sydney adults popped into cafes and workplaces with dashes of ash on their foreheads. The day was declared. Ash Wednesday-- whatever that meant. I know what it means now, but back then...not so much.
What I did learn was that there was a day that preceded Ash Wednesday that was apparently a day for fun and frolic. They say that the ashes were there to remind the wearer of their humanity, dust to dust and all that stuff. We are human after all, and we are all going to return to dust/ ash eventually. A somber reality, to be sure. But the day before that-- it's titled Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and is a day or rather an evening of debauchery and frolic. An evening to let your hair down, to join with others in decadence and self-consumption. Why then? The next day you are expected to self-deny, so get all the self-centredness out of the way on Tuesday's fatness and you will be ready to meet ashes and sullenness on Wednesday.
What's the rainbow got to do with it? After all the rainbow was originally a sign of something between God and mankind, a symbol of covenant. A symbol of acceptance and welcome. But now it's something related to Fat Tuesday.
Stores all around the City, and probably all around the country, are showing the red/orange/yellow...violet (Roy G. Biv) lineup. In a way it's a sign of welcome, that anyone who celebrates Mardi Gras is welcome to shop and spend their money at that facility.
But often it's more than that.
It's about a time to showcase sensuality and debauchery. It's about making room for folks who usually parade down Oxford Street in licentious and usually well orchestrated syncopation.
What's the rainbow got to do with it? It was a symbol that has been commandeered by others. It's time for the believers to take it back into the realm from which it came.
Gen. 9:13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,
Gen. 9:16 “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Dear friends,
When God sends these Roy G Biv colours into your world; look up and say 'thanks.' He will never again destroy the world by flood. He is the God of covenant. He really does love us all. On Tuesdays or Wednesdays or every day. Call on him while he is near.
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