SnowBow

I have seen rainbows galore - single, double, skinny, wide, half, whole, and even just a shred. They play well among water droplets, dancing with pure abandon in thin air always just beyond your reach. Even the one that sparkled in the fountain shooting water from the center of the coy pond at Letchworth, a little rainbow that seemed to stem straight out of the water at ground level. Stick your hand into the colors and they disappear!

What I have no recollection of having ever seen is a rainbow shimmering in a snowstorm! What an amazing surprise to look into the gray sky ahead where the snow is falling and see color! Kiel and I were driving home at lunch when we both spotted it at the same time. The whole drive, it remained constant as if it were some solid thing dangling there to encourage us that spring is on the way.

How did God think up the rainbow? Was it because Noah had spent so long in the darkness of the storm in the hold of the ark with no sun visible? So God knew that glorious color dancing in the water in the sun was just what the doctor ordered? They are so striking that you remember them for a long time.

I am told that there are also moonbows which are more white than colored. I haven't seen one of those yet. Maybe I will glimpse a moonbow some magical evening! But this snowbow - vivid colors attached to the frigid flakes - I will store the promise of it in my mind for some bleak and dark hour when I need to remember that life will warm up and color will return even as things begin to thaw. It is a promise, after all.