“And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."  Genesis 9: 12-13

When I was just 13 years old, my mom died. The night before she died, I remember my brother and I opening up the Bible at random. As luck would have it, we opened to a page about miracles. That night, we prayed together for a miracle. Sadly, we did not get the miracle that we had hoped and prayed for.

In the days after her death I remember feeling sad and lonely. I remember asking my dad if the "empty feeling inside" would ever go away. Yet as I worked through these feelings, I listened to important people in my mom's life tell stories of seeing rainbows around the time that she died (and double ones at that!) that brought them peace and reassurance that she was in heaven, and that everything would be ok.

Fast forward a few months later. I was missing my mom more than usual that particular day. As I slept that evening I saw my mom in a dream. I ran up to her, gave her a big hug, and told her that I missed her. She hugged me back, told me that she missed me, and reassured me that she was watching me. The next morning, I woke up to the sight of a beautiful rainbow. Coincidence? Some might think so. But I believe without hesitation that it was not just a coincidence. I believe this because rainbows continue to appear in my life at the most unexpected, yet appropriate times. When they appear, they provide me with peace that my mom is watching over me from her heavenly home, and that there is a God who loves me very much.

While I have learned to live my life without my mom, and have been blessed with the experience of now being a mom myself, the journey has not always been easy. There have been "stormy" times in my life where I have again felt sad and lonely. But God has always stuck by me during these difficult times, and I have always seen the rainbow after the storm. During one of my more recent "storms", I even allowed myself to be vulnerable, and reached out to members at Bethel for help and support. They are now my friends, and I am so grateful to them for being there for me when I needed it, and without judgment.

My prayer for each of you who reads this is that you wait out the storms in your lives and remember that there will always be a rainbow on the other side. That's what God has promised to each and everyone of us.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank you for sending us rainbows that remind us of Your promise to watch over us for all of eternity. Amen.