It started to rain. I gathered my bible, my journal, my pens, and my coffee and ran under the awning waiting for the sprinkle to pass.

In the distance in an instant, it formed.

A cloud on the right opened at one end and a rainbow slide poured out into the ocean. Vibrant it held its position, and in awe we held ours. Eventually one end started to fade and then the other until moments later the sky was only clouds, reflecting the light of the sun onto the surface of the water.

Lessons surround us. Sometimes they are packaged up in one of God’s most impressive works of art.

Four Lessons

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Beauty is in the surprise.

Every rain does not bring a rainbow.

I enjoy the familiar, and the expected. I find it comforting. When I order my eggs over easy, I’d like them to come out that way. But there isn’t anything particularly beautiful about a well executed order of eggs.

There isn’t a recipe for rainbows, or a formula we can copy/paste in excel to get the same result each time. What makes the rainbow beautiful is the surprise. What makes it joyful is the discovery. What makes it mesmerizing is wondering where it begins and ends. A temporary beautiful, joyful, mesmerizing surprise.

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There are things I cannot do.

That’s why I need God.

I cannot do it all, and I wasn’t meant to. Neither were you. But I sure do try and control a lot of things, and assume it’s my responsibility to do so. After all, “Who will do it, if I don’t?” We tell ourselves.

Who will create the rainbow if I don’t?

Only God can create the rainbow

• in the sky He spoke into existence
• after the rain He produced
• above the ocean He instructs
• while He rises the sun (every day) behind me.

It sounds silly to ask a question about me creating rainbows. I wonder how often I am asking such a misplaced question about a topic, never meant for me, and only meant for God?

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Appreciate the temporary.

Most things are temporary.

Knowing it is not eternal, we stare at the rainbow until it is gone. Some will try and capture it, as an image they can look at in the future. But it’s not the same. Not as naturally vibrant, not as expansive, not nearly as joyful as the one temporary moment when you looked up, and found it there.

I am typically terrible at living in the moment.

I check boxes and move on to the next. Often planning another vacation while I’m still on one. Thinking about the next deadline, before celebrating the one we just achieved.

Memories are best formed and solidified when we give a moment all of our attention, all of our senses.

When we allow ourselves permission to sit in the moment and mentally record the colors, the sounds, the smells… when we recall the journey to this moment, how it feels to finally get here. To put words to the feelings and the moment, and say “I will choose to remember this.” Suddenly the temporary can have permanence.

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Choose to look up.

Embrace the moment.

It was raining. It was easy to be discouraged, to hide under an umbrella, to get on devices, and wait for the storm to pass. But anyone who did that, missed it.

• They missed the beauty of the soft rain and the sway of the trees.
• They missed the strength and skill of the pelican navigating the wind.
• They missed the bigger rolling waves cresting into walls of white.

And they missed the moment the rain paused, and the split second later when the sun broke the clouds in half, and illuminated perfect streaks of color in the sky, all in a row, pouring into the ocean.

You have to look up to see the rainbow.

If we’re constantly looking down to escape the present, we can miss the opportunity just waiting for our attention.

There is a person who needs our smile.

And God is trying to make us smile (maybe with a rainbow).

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Written Tuesday & Wednesday January 23-24, 2024 at Hawksbill Resort in St. John’s, Antigua.