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sunrise rainbow

I saw something this morning that I've never seen before--a rainbow in the middle of the sunrise.

Believe it or not, I've seen a lot of sunrises. When Pop and I would milk in the mornings, we got to watch quite a few of them. There were even a couple of times when I was in the milk barn when Pop came in and had me stop to walk outside and watch the sun come up.

Every sunrise I've seen was beautiful; if you haven't seen one in a while, it wouldn't hurt to take the time to get up early one day and watch. It's a whole different world at that time of the day--it's quiet and calm and gorgeous.

I've seen amazing rainbows in the past. In our little corner of the Ozarks last spring, we got to see a double rainbow that stretched from one side of the sky to the other, touching bright green rolling hills on each end. The bright colors were spectacular against the bright blue sky. 

This morning, though, there was something amazing about seeing the sky on fire with the rising sun--all filled with pinks, reds, and golds--with a rainbow shining in the middle of it. It was just one end, hardly anything that filled up the whole sky, but it made my breath catch.

It didn't last very long, and the rest of the morning has been gray and dreary. There hasn't been a storm, just a constant drizzle that is enough to get everything wet but not enough for me to carry an umbrella.

Rainbows are reminders of God's promise, and this morning His promise to be with and to take care of His people struck me when I saw the rainbow in the sunrise. When the rain came, the rainbow wasn't visible anymore. The colors of the sunrise were replaced with clouds that hid the splendor of just a few minutes before.

Isn't life like that sometimes? You are given glimpses of God's awesome power, of His beauty and magnificence, and your breath catches. In that moment, everything seems right. You know that God has you, and that you can face whatever lies ahead. After all, He's right there.

But then, the gloom comes. The beauty of God is hidden by the dreariness of life, and you start forgetting about His promises.

Do you know what's amazing about a rainbow? The light is always there, even when you can't see the colors. The only reason you can see the rainbow is because the conditions are just right, with the light splitting because it travels through the rain. All those colors are still there; it's just that you can't see them all the time.

The same is true of our relationship with God. He is always there, and His promises are always true. We can't always see Him, but that's just because the conditions aren't always exactly perfect.

And just like it's the rain that lets us see the beauty hidden in the light, sometimes it's the hard times in life that let us see God's beauty. 

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