What is it about a rainbow that fills everyone with hope and joy?

My mood was kind of gloomy yesterday as I took my dog Bella for her morning walk. To the left of me the sky was ominously dark, threatening a major storm, but to the right the sun was shining brightly, peaking through bunches of white clouds.  As I turned to walk back to the house, a rainbow magically appeared stretching from the dark mass, over the roadway into the sunny portion of the sky. I have to tell you my heart leapt as a broad smile formed on my lips.  The gorgeous, colorful beauty of it made me feel as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  I tried to decipher the beginning from the end as a light, misty rain began to fall.  A honking car pulled over to me and two smiling elderly women shouted out, “Do you see the rainbow?!!”  Further down the road another neighbor came running with her camera to get a better look, “Wow!” I passed two children waiting for the bus.  “Look, I pointed upward – look at the beautiful rainbow! It means it’s going to be a wonderful day,” I told them. I left them smiling and gazing upward at the mystical formation.

A rainbow is defined as an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of  light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere, taking the form of a single arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun.

Some people think of rainbows as signs from God. I just heard a story on TV last night of how a woman believes that when a rainbow appears, it is a sign that her beloved deceased husband is watching over her and their children.  She went on to say they have appeared at monumental times since his death at family milestones. I actually thought at the time I was listening to this story that it had been a long time since I saw a rainbow.  Low and behold – the next morning it came! Some even believe there’s a leprechaun waiting with a pot of gold at rainbow’s end!  As for me, I think it’s just another of God’s amazing creations that blesses us with the promise of eternal peace and happiness, giving us a reason to be joyful with the promise of good things to come.