Dissolving Rainbows

“For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1 ASV

I love to stand outdoors staring at a rainbow. The skies are inky, but somewhere behind me is a sunbeam, showing me what I can’t normally see—those droplets of water arranged just so in the skies by God so I can see the giant prism now organized in a stretched-out arc as big as the world.

Then there are those few moments when the rainbow begins to dissolve. I stand and watch until it is no longer there. Usually it starts at one end and slowly moves along the rainbow until it is gone from sight. Someday another storm and sunbeam will bring another rainbow—in another place, seen by diverse watchers and marvelers, beheld by new eyes, and having a different effect on them, or perhaps no effect at all.

It reminds me of human life. For a while, life is bright and colorful, gently beautiful, and testifying to the creative work of God. A newborn baby. A playful child. A starry-eyed bride. A full and fruitful life. Those in the vicinity may be affected by the beauty of this life, or may not.

But the day comes when the life begins to dissolve, to unravel, to be a shadow of its former vitality. The eyes go. The hearing. The muscles. The brain. Last, the heart, and with it, life itself. Only the memory of beauty and purpose and promise remains. The life has served its purpose on earth and has gone on into the heavenlies, disappearing from our view, re-created by God, in His presence, for its new purpose. “And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald” (Revelation 4:3).

It is unbearably sad for those who remain, but we know from the dissolved rainbow that He gives hope. On earth, there are new rainbows. In heaven, there is new life. “I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth” (Genesis 9:13). This is His promise, His covenant with us: When believers’ lives dissolve on earth, we move right on into the heavens to be near Him.

Lord, for those who are carrying great grief and sorrow over the loss of a loved one, would You allow the joy of this reality to settle deep within them. Strengthen those who remain behind, and gladden their hearts. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.