A Rainbow for the Bride

This Saturday, I was watering plants outside my grandma's house.  The sun was bright, the air hot and humid, and the bugs numerous.  It had been a long day already, with a quick breakfast, shopping lists and plans.  As soon as I was done here, we were going to a birthday party, and then I'd stay home with the kids while my husband went out with friends.  It's going to be a late night, I thought as I watched the water stream from the hose and soak into the dirt.

Then I saw it.  A wash of color.  I moved the hose back and forth across the plants, searching this time.  Yes, there it was again.  

A rainbow.  

Interrupting my thoughts in the most subtle and beautiful way.  I kept swishing the hose over the grass to see more of it.  Then, another rainbow.  A double rainbow.  Just for me.  

It was as if God was saying, "Why are you so focused on the comings and goings in your life?  Why are you always searching for the next thing?  Just trying to get through until you can rest?  Look, I have a gift for you right now."

I laughed like a child, giddy with glee as I pointed the hose up into the air above my head, searching to see more of the rainbow.  It misted all around me and I saw the rainbow encircle me, reflecting off the droplets.

I looked in awe, soaking in the glory while the water soaked my hair.  All this for me?  It wasn't a rainbow in the sky, visible to all.  It was just for me.  Like a kiss in the dark, a secret shared between two souls.  The memory of it lingered the next day, bringing a smile to my face every time I thought of it.  Such a wash of color, completely unexpected in the hubbub of my day.

The Bible says we're the bride of Christ, His church.  It always sounded so formal to my ears, like an arranged marriage.  He comes to lead and provide and we go through the motions of a marriage, but romance?  Certainly not.  How would that even work with God?  But when I saw this rainbow, it was as if God was courting me.  Showing up on my doorstep with flowers He handpicked, just because He knew I liked them.

Then I remembered Hosea.  God instructs him to marry a prostitute to illustrate the way Israel's people committed adultery with other gods.  In the second chapter, God talks about holding Israel accountable.  Then he says, "But then I will win her back once again.  I will lead her out into the desert and speak tenderly to her there ... In that coming day," says the Lord, "you will call me 'my husband' instead of 'my master.'" (Hosea 2:14,16)

How interesting.  God wants to win Israel back.  He wants to speak tenderly to her.  Like a jealous man fighting for the woman he loves after she's had an affair, romancing her.  Even now, thinking of it, I feel warmth spreading through my limbs, delight bubbling up like laughter.  It's amazing.  God, who made the heavens and the earth, God, to whom we must seem like grasshoppers, is romantic.  And he wants us, is willing to fight for us, to romance us, to sacrifice His Son for us.  Like the hero sacrificing all to save the damsel in distress.

And He showed up on my doorstep with a rainbow, just for me, on an ordinary, busy Saturday morning?  Incredible.