Rainbow Promises

Photo by Wing-Chi Poon

Although worldly promises are often like pie crusts (made to be broken), spiritual promises are sometimes like rainbows (made to be infinitely pursued but never possessed).

This motif is reflected in rainbow imagery from numerous traditions.  There is usually a visionary promise at the end of the rainbow, and that end is never quite reachable by mere human effort.

Take the pot of gold, for instance.  Leprechauns tend to be blamed for its unavailability, but the real culprit is the rainbow itself.  If the rainbow did not shift and/or disappear when approached, then all the leprechauns in (and out of) this world would not be able to keep that gold from human hands.

Then there's Iris, the elusive Greek goddess.  Although people have been naming their daughters after her for centuries, many are still scratching their heads while asking, "Who is she really?"  That's because Iris rides rainbows, allowing her to be just as flighty.  The Australian aboriginal Rainbow Serpent has been equally unpredictable.  Symbolizing creation and destruction, it may just as easily crush as nurture.

The Covenant of Noah's Rainbow seems like something that humankind can really count on.  Yet while assuring us that God will never again destroy most living things with floodwaters, it says absolutely nothing about nuclear meltdowns, plagues, meteorites, star wars, etc.  That's when faith needs to pick up the slack.  Unlike rainbows, it can continually brighten our Way.  

Resources

https://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Iris.html

https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/rainbow-serpent/

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%209&version=NIV

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/is-there-a-pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow-/5810673.html