SHINE!

 Double Rainbow photo by MRB, Totem Bite, Ketchikan Alaska.

The beautiful, mystical rainbow.  An expose’ of God Himself!
It was God who ‘set the rainbow in the clouds’. Genesis 9.  Aren’t you glad He did?  A rainbow is formed by the refraction of the sun’s light by rain or other water droplets in the atmosphere. It is astounding that light is made up of colors!  As light passes through the raindrops it is separated or refracted into the seven colors of the rainbow.  

What we see is an expose’ or revelation of what light actually is!  It is color!   It is what we call the color spectrum, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.  But a rainbow is actually made up of over one million colors!!!   We just can’t see them all. (Color Meanings.)

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” John 8:12. If you begin to assign meaning to the colors that refraction reveals, you will begin to get a description of just who this ‘light of the world’ is!  

In his blog, ‘Color Meaning’, Jacob Olesen shares what he has collected regarding the meanings of the colors of the rainbow across cultures.  The following is from his list.
Red, the strongest form of love.  ‘God is love.’ 1 John 4:8.
Orange, friendly.  ‘There is a friend, (Jesus), who sticks closer than a brother.’ Proverbs 18:24.
Yellow, sunshine.  ‘He (Jesus) is the light of the world.’ John 8:12.
Green, the color of life.  ‘He (Jesus) is the way, the truth and the life.’ John 14:6.
Blue, peace.  He is our peace.  ‘My peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.’  John 14:27.
Indigo, mystery.  Jesus Christ is a mystery.  ‘The mystery of Christ.’  Ephesians 3:4.
Violet.  The color of royalty.  ‘Jesus is the High Priest.’  Hebrews 4:14-16.

If as Jacob Olesen says, there are actually over one million colors in the rainbow, you could exhaust the English language describing Jesus by its colors.  Next time you see a rainbow think about the depth of what you are seeing.  Once again, ASTOUNDING!

Another thought.  As light passes through clear glass as in a prism or a drop of water, all this beautiful color of the ‘light of the world’ is revealed.  But if there are obstructions in the glass, the light would be adversely affected and the light would be dimmed, distorted or obliterated and not show at all.  

Isn’t that the way it is with us.  As followers of Christ, we are called to ‘let our light shine before others’. Matthew 5:16.   
But unfortunately, we let obstructions like sin or the cares of this world impede the light and ‘others’ can barely see the light of Christ in our lives or not at all!

The following are some of the things that impede the light, ‘The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, (and impede the light) making it unfruitful. Mark 4:19. And sin, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles’ (and impedes the light).  Hebrews 12:1.

So I say, in the words of the Apostle Paul, ‘let us throw off everything that hinders’ the light of Christ in our lives and let us……. SHINE!