"Look at the rainbow!" She pointed out the window. I stopped and stared in awe. The vibrant, full rainbow arched from the Oregon side of the Columbia to the Washington side.
I stood in the presence of the Divine. It wasn't just the artistry of the Creator that I could see with my eyes. I felt the stories of the ancestors permeate my thoughts and flowing through my veins. The Spirit lured me to ascribe special meaning and significance to this natural event. This scientifically explainable event became an auspicious sign of connection between God and me.
And, so, we were late for church on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the Christian Holy Week. It is traditionally the day when followers of Jesus remember his triumphant arrival in Jerusalem, only to be crucified just days later.
In many ways Palm Sunday is a day of naiveté. The first followers of Jesus thought they knew the whole story. Though, according to the gospel storyline, Jesus told his disciples that things would take a bad turn, they still believed that success had arrived on Palm Sunday. It had not.
Jesus, the One who breathed in the divine and breathed out extravagant love for all, was a threat to the power structures of his time. He would be humiliated, tortured, and killed by the Romans before the week came to a close.
But love will ALWAYS have the last word. The Spirit used the rainbow to remind me of the ancients' stories of promise. Though challenging times are ahead of us, the rainbow signifies the promise of love's ultimate power to transform.
As humanity seeks to face the unfathomable challenges of global economic injustice, a world polluted until it is warming, decade-long wars, modern day slavery, starvation, and the denial of the Imago Dei (the image of God) in one another a rainbow arches across the Columbia River on Palm Sunday.
It is as if God is saying, "Keep up the good fight, my children, my transforming, extravagant love for all of humanity will have the last word!"
Amen, brother Tim, and thank you!
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