Celebrating the Rainbow of Life

Team Erin - Before the Color Run

Last week a team from my church, St. Mark's, walked/ran in the Color Run in Buffalo. Our team name was Team Erin in honor of one of our parishioners battling lymphoma. I am happy to report this was a celebration of Erin's recovery and her husband and six year old daughter were part of the team. Our team had members 2 years old through 70 years old.

It occurred to me as we were standing among about 10,000 people waiting for the race - really 5K fun run - to start that the whole thing is a party. It's a celebration of life and what better way to celebrate life than with color! The organizers do a great job of creating and maintaining the party atmosphere from the starting chute through the finish line and beyond. You can't help but be happy, thus the title "The Happiest 5K on the Planet."

After the Color Run

We started out with white shirts and ended covered in color. After running through a rainbow of color, I started to think about rainbows and God's promise. God promised Noah that He would never destroy the earth again. As a reminder of that promise God gave us the rainbow. The promise is more than just a pretty splash of color in the sky; its that God will not desert us, that the rain will end.

Have you ever stopped to really think about that promise? No matter how bad or how long the rain lasts, God is there and we will see that beautiful rainbow. There may be lightening and thunder, but it will end and there will be beauty at the end. It may seem like we are all alone, that only ugliness surrounds us but we have God's promise. God says "hold on, the rainbow is coming!"

In order to see the rainbow and enjoy the colors, we must go through the rain. There is no rainbow, no color, without the rain. We see the colors because the water disperses the light to create the rainbow. I think the rainbow is worth it. I'll go through the rain for the opportunity to see all the colors!  I'm choosing to celebrate life with the knowledge that the rainbow is there, even if I can't see it yet.