Rainbows and Promises and Extreme Weather

A morning rainbow in our valley

Good Afternoon, God!

My wonderful husband Kit came home from his Rotary meeting this morning yelling “RAINBOW!, RAINBOW!” and sure enough there was a rainbow right inside our valley.

I love rainbows. I love the fact that they don’t last. And that they come unexpectedly and joyfully.

They are the sign of a Promise from You — a promise made after the Great Flood — a promise that You wouldn’t do another flood.

Sigh. It looks as if You won’t have to flood the Earth. We are slowly but surely creating our own Flood.

Every day we are adding to the Greenhouse Effect — CO2, particulate matter, etc. All of it keeping more sunlight from leaving our atmosphere. We have set in motion a positive feedback loop. Each degree warmer means more meltwater from glaciers and the poles flowing into our oceans. It means the melting of the permafrost which then releases methane gases into the air — gases that will speed the warming even faster than carson dioxide does.

And warmer oceans mean Higher Sea Levels and Stronger Storms and more Extremes in our weather patterns. Our world will get much colder as well as much warmer.

How are we to respond? There ARE people thinking and planning. But, most of us really don’t want to think about it. It’s a problem that is both Too Big and (for now) Too Slow. What can I do? What can WE do as a Species?

You have designed us to care about one another — to reach out during disasters. But, not if we are divided into hundreds of USes and THEMs. Not if we are blaming and judging or — and some people still are — denying there are problems.

So, God, please pour out a lot more of Your Holy Spirit on each of us. Help us to work together — one busy and multiplying Species on one small, warming World.