Perspective: Tracing a Rainbow through the Rain

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

Tracing a Rainbow through the Rain

Scripture:

Weeping may linger for the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

Psalm 30:5b (NRSV)

O Love that will not let me go

I rest my weary soul in Thee

I give Thee back the life I owe

That in Thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be

From "O Love that Will Not Let Me Go" by George Matheson

I have a friend who will be going to seminary this fall, so, about two weeks ago, I attended his church to hear him preach one last time before he leaves the area. At the end of the service, the closing hymn was a hymn I sometimes have trouble singing. Music has always had a way of getting to me, and over the years there have been a few songs that have made me cry. One night, when I was little, I heard a certain song on television and started crying. When my mom asked me why I was crying, I didn't know what to tell her.

"O Love that Will Not Let Me Go" is a particularly moving hymn about finding hope, joy, and renewed strength from God in the midst of pain and difficulty. Contemporary worship leaders have set this song to upbeat music, but the original tune, which a person is most likely to hear at a traditional church service, is just as poignant as the lyrics.

Though I find both the music and the lyrics beautiful and touching, this hymn probably wouldn't affect me the way it does if I didn't know the story behind the hymn.

George Matheson was a pastor in Scotland who had gone blind while he was in seminary. He composed this hymn at his home while suffering from a deep depression on the day one of his sisters got married. It is believed that his sister's wedding triggered some painful memories for him. Years earlier, he too was engaged to be married, but his fiancee broke off the engagement because she didn't want to be married to a blind man. Matheson never married.

The words to the song written within five minutes. Matheson claimed that the song came from a Voice deep within him.¹

I first heard this story at my church several years ago, and, when the congregation sang the song afterward, I got choked up. Matheson's story resonated with me, because I too am familiar with the sting of rejection. I too know what it is like to feel like I am not good enough, to feel as though I am undesirable, to feel like there is something wrong with me. Like Matheson, I too find it comforting to know that, though my fellow human beings may reject me, God will never leave me or forsake me.

At the church service two weeks ago, I made it through the first two verses, but I had to stop singing in the middle of the third verse:

O Joy that seekest me through pain

I cannot close my heart to Thee

I trace the rainbow through the rain

And feel the promise is not vain

That morn shall tearless be

If I had tried to continue singing, sob-like noises probably would have come out of my mouth. I think the contrast between the rainbow and the rain is a beautiful way to describe finding joy in the midst of great sadness.

A couple of months ago, my Sunday school class sang this hymn before the lesson. At that time I realized something interesting about this particular verse. George Matheson had gone blind years earlier, but he could still experience rain with his other four senses: he could still hear, feel, taste, and smell the rain. A rainbow, on the other hand, is a phenomenon that can only be seen, yet Matheson speaks of tracing a rainbow in the present tense. Since he could not observe a rainbow with his four remaining senses, there was only one remaining way for him to enjoy a rainbow:

he had to have faith that it was there.

In the Bible, faith is defined as "the assurance of things hoped for" and "the conviction of things not seen."² Faith gives us a reason to believe when we can find no logical reason to believe. Faith is our reason to keep going when we may feel as though we have every reason to give up. Faith is seeing a rainbow in the sky when our world is so dark we can't even see our hands in front of our faces. Faith is what we read in the words of a young Polish Jew who faced persecution at the hands of the Nazis: "I believe in the sun, even if it does not shine. I believe in love, even if I do not feel it. I believe in God, even if I do not see Him."

There are times when it's hard to see the good in life. There are times in our lives when dark clouds obscure the sun, and our whole world seems to be cast into a gray haze. There are times when we are so overcome by the storms of life we feel as though we are drowning. At these times we need to have faith:

faith that the sun is still shining behind the clouds,

faith that the storm will someday come to an end,

faith that we'll someday see a rainbow.

If you're going through a difficult time right now, may you find the faith to keep on going. May you realize that tough times do not last forever and that the storms of life will someday come to an end. Most of all, may you realize that you are not alone in your struggles, for God is with you.

Notes:
1 - Richard Niell Donovan. "Hymn Story: O Love that Will Not Let Me Go." 2008, Lectionary.org
2 - Hebrews 11:1 (NRSV)

The photographs featured in this perspective were taken by me after a recent summer thunderstorm.


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