Some days you need a rainbow

Back on Tuesday, August 8, I felt like the world was piling up on me.

I arrived at Trinity early to open the building and to drop off my old back pack.

Next, I made the short drive to the Mobil station on Forest Avenue to leave my wife’s car for an oil change.

The station wasn’t open yet, so I put the car keys in an envelope and slid them into the mail slot in the door.

From there, I started my walk back home.

As I walked, my brain swirled.

At Trinity, the church where I work, a motor on an interior HVAC unit had clunked out from a recent power failure. I knew replacing it would be expensive.

Back on June 27, I turned seventy. For some reason, I’ve thought about that birthday more than the others I have experienced.

I’ve always had good health, but over the last few days my eye doctor, urologist, and dermatologist had some words of caution for me.

As I started walking up the hill on Stuart Hall Road, I noticed an empty, plastic water bottle along the side of the road.

Uncharacteristically, I walked by it.

But, a few steps later, my conscience turned me around to pick up the bottle to recycle.

When I arrived at our house, I walked down the driveway to where we keep our trash cans and recycling bin. That’s when I looked up and saw in the backdrop of our neighbor’s yard a stunning rainbow.

From where I was standing, there were no raindrops. However, to the west dark clouds must have been dropping a rain shower. The rising sun in the east was cast at the perfect angle to form the graceful rainbow.

At that moment, I thought about God’s timing.

If I had not been nudged to turn around to pick up that discarded water bottle, I would have never seen this rainbow.

Was God attempting to signal me with the rainbow?

Had God or an alert angel been eavesdropping on the spinning self-talk in my old brain?

I’m not sure, but when I saw that rainbow, despite my whining woes, I did feel a smidgen of relief.

Yes, the HVAC repair was expensive.

My eye doctor and urologist have a plan for further assessment.

The dermatologist successfully removed the basal cell on the back of my lower left leg.

And God when you least expect it sends a rainbow to remind rapidly aging old fools like me that he is still around.

And maybe, that’s why on some days these three words from 1 Thessalonians chapter five verse seventeen stumble into what’s left of my crumbling mind: “pray without ceasing.”

Don’t cease your prayers.

Some days, your prayer might be a person’s silent rainbow.