Written in the Heavens

Since journaling about my “summer rainbows” last night, I’ve realized that they are actually the second and third in a trilogy. My first summer rainbow occurred exactly seven years ago: August 25, 2004. It was the eve of a big moving day for me. For two years I had been interning at the international headquarters of a Christian ministry, and now I was leaving to start college at Verity Institute. My heart was torn; I didn’t want to leave. I loved living and working at that ministry campus—I had grown so much in the Lord there and had made many wonderful friends. What would Verity bring?    

That evening my housemates were throwing a farewell party for me. While they were setting up, I offered to run an errand back to the office to fetch a housemate’s camera for her. As I left the office building, the sun was setting behind me. I paused in the parking lot to bask in the scene, even though it was starting to rain. The vivid colors of the sunset kept getting brighter and brighter—gorgeous. Just when I turned to run back to my house, I noticed in the sky over the hill in front of me a tiny section of a faint, blurry rainbow peeking through the clouds. At that moment, standing in the rain, with the sunset behind me and the rainbow ahead of me,

God’s peace and hope flooded my soul. It was as if He were telling me that I have approached the sunset of this season in my life—a season that has been beautiful and wonderful. . . . Yet, at the same time, there’s beauty ahead too, even if I can’t see it distinctly. He promises to be faithful and to give me a future and a hope and to fulfill His purpose for me.

(from my August 25, 2004 journal entry)

Gazing at that faint rainbow that evening seven years ago, I had no idea all that I would experience in my upcoming season of life at Verity. I didn’t know the extent to which God would stretch me, deepen me, break me, remold me. I had yet to meet the wonderful friends, make the happy memories, persevere through the hard times that would comprise my seven years at Verity. In the months that I have been home now, there is a lot that I’ve been processing about my Verity experience, particularly my three years as the Women’s Coordinator. There’s a lot that I still don’t understand about the journey through which God has taken me. As I continue to seek His perspective, I’m awed to think that He distinctly book-ended my Verity season with rainbows—symbols of His covenant. Written in the heavens is clear testimony: “Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens; Your faithfulness to the skies” (Psalm 36:5).