Ah, here we are! The final post about rainbows. Today (tonight, actually) is all about the fifth part: How rainbows apply to me in a new way now.

When I see a rainbow, it not only makes me smile, but it makes me think of a certain something: storms. Rainbows come after rain, that’s how it works. The beautiful sight and the pretty colors come after the storm. To say it a different way, while still repeating myself (something I tend to do a lot), storms come…but beauty follows.

I’ve seen this in my life.

And now I’m learning this again. Not because I stopped believing it before or because I didn’t trust before. But maybe I’m learning it again because I forgot to always look for the beauty. There was beauty there. So much. But I didn’t appreciate it all as much as I should have…until it was gone.

But now I look for beauty. I strain to see the good that will come from all these storms.

I don’t see it yet. Truly, I don’t.

I see that beauty can come, but I don’t see it yet.

I want to see it. I long to. I pray to and I hope to.

But I don’t.

Yet.

I see good moments, almost like the sun peeking out from storm clouds for the shortest moment. And then things get dark and windy and the storm rages once again. But that little glimpse of the sunshine helps me to keep hoping. It shows me that there is light even when my world seems dark. It reminds me that the sun is still there; the storm will pass.

And then the rainbow comes.

The final hurrah. The end of the storm has come, and out of the ugliness of a loud and ferocious storm, a quiet radiance comes from the rainbow.

It takes your breath away.

You can’t help but stop and stare with your mouth wide open.

You gasp from the beauty that can come right after something so damaging.

And because the rainbow is a reminder, you remember what you have just gone through.

Rainbows give me hope. I have no rainbow yet. My heart cries out for one, and God knows I long for the rainbow to come and the storm to end.

It’s just not time yet, apparently. So I’m weathering the storm while believing the rainbow will come. It will.

And then everyone will stop and stare with their mouths wide open at the beauty God has brought from great heartache, brokenness, and suffering. And God will get all the glory and His name will be praised. That rainbow will come. I’m in the storm, but the rainbow is coming.

My rainbow is coming.