Partly Cloudy, Partly Sunny

When times are good, be happy, but when times are bad, consider: God has made one as well as the other.
--Solomon, Ecclesiastes 7:14

Today has been full of contrasts.

This morning, on my way to the Coffee Shop, I was distracted by the blue sky and sun streaking through the dark clouds as the rain poured itself onto the earth. I love the rain, but I also love the sun. And this morning was a perfect mixture.

But the best surprise was across from the Coffee Shop; a perfect rainbow arc. The rainbow was beautiful, even though the end of the rainbow was the Bartell Drugstore--which is nothing like a pot of gold. When I got out of the car, sans slipping, I was even more delighted to see that it was a double rainbow.

I love the way you love me, Lord.

I was talking with one of the baristas at the Coffee Shop about the rainbow. I asked him if I thought it was going to rain or shine. Drawing conclusions from the dark clouds covering the rainbow I had seen a few moments earlier, he opted for rain and darkness. Jokingly, I rolled my eyes.

Me: You forgot your lines, Coffee Boy. Do you want to try that again?
Coffee Boy: [laughing.] You can always count on my optimism.
Me: Yes. That's exactly why I come here. "It's going to rain. It's going to be dark. You're going to spill your coffee on yourself. You're going to slip and fall off the stage." Optimism at it's best. Don't let anyone tell you that you're a realist. It's all lies.

[Coffee Boy continues laughing at me.]

Me: Well, at least I make you laugh.
Coffee Boy: Yes, I am in a better mood now. I can count on you for that. Even if it is at your expense.
Me: That's why you guys pay me the big bucks. When someone thinks you're bad moody, they call me to come in and do something stupid just so you could feel better.
Coffee Boy: [still laughing.] That's how we work around here.
Me: Well, I don't care if it rains. I like both the rain and the sun.
Coffee Boy: It's a good thing that in Washington you often get both at the same time.
Me: And it's the only time you'll get a rainbow.

We can't be afraid of the bad or hope to only prolong the good. We need the bad to fully know what is good, and we need the good to help us get through the bad. Whether things are good or bad, dark or light, rain or shine, hope or struggle, valley or mountain top, desert or promised land, we need both in order to see how things truly are.

And maybe only then can we be not afraid of our circumstances, our plans, our futures. Maybe only then can we not focus on a life that is perfect and without pain. Maybe only then can we live life that is fully engaged and abundant.

All right, I'll stop. Metaphor, you have been milked.

I don't know why the rainbow meant so much to me today, but I needed it. Recently, my life has been full of competing contrasts, that I got lost in the chaos of it all.

I needed to know that I can keep going and hold onto hope. I needed to remember what God has promised me. I needed to believe that God's plan isn't to leave me in the desert. I needed to be reminded that everything is going to be all right.

I needed to see that in midst of everything going on right now, I still belong to God and that He has not forgotten me.

I love the way you love me, Lord.