The world as it had been known was gone, all of it destroyed. It was buried by water and sludge, becoming a graveyard of despair. For days and then weeks, the forecast had been the same: storm clouds, rising waters, and no relief in sight.
Perhaps the roof had begun to leak. Maybe, in time, the stench of a floating zoo had become unbearable. Everywhere they looked, they saw only each other. There was no place to escape from the figures of those who shared their fate.
Relentless rain, comprehensive devastation, and only their lives had been spared. Nothing about the landscape was familiar anymore. All they were left was a muddy mess.
How does one begin again? Where does one begin again? Caked with the muck of mass destruction, how does one commence rebuilding a life?
Having known the terror of powerful winds against which one cannot stand; having endured towering walls of water slamming, battering, rolling, and pitching the vessel that held whatever life remained, how does one regain a footing? Having known the pain and sorrow of losing the world, how does one take courage and stand tall? Exhausted by simply surviving, how does one rebuild a life? Having known the worst that life and death could offer, how does one trust that it would not happen again?
Looking out over the grey and rain-filled skies, after days of gloom and doom, a light shines through the clouds. Beams of sunlight move through the drops of rain that remain, creating an arc from one end of the horizon to the other. Each drop of rain is a significant part of the arc’s formation, separating the white light of the sun into a rainbow of colors. Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet. Perfectly painted, perfectly placed.
The light projects the weary sailor’s gaze forward. The rain bows across the sky. It is an arc of brilliance, majestic in its hold of the heavens from one end to the other. It is the promise of One who created light and rain, dry earth and sea. It is the promise that though there will be storms, hardships, trials, persecutions, and disasters – though the world as it was known has been changed forever – the promise of God’s presence, God’s love, God’s care, and God’s companionship on the journey will not change.
The rainbow promise holds fast as the Light guides us forward.
Thanks be to God.
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