Chasing after Rainbows

Chasing after rainbows is an expression that usually means to try to get something that you will never obtain. But I literally chase after rainbows, searching rain-streaked skies for signs of refracted light after a storm. Upon my last rainbow sighting two days ago, I texted a rainbow-loving friend "Rainbow over Elmont, due East!" It turns out that she had already asked God to let her see a rainbow, and she saw it, too.

As I sat in a parking lot staring at the rainbow for at least 20 minutes I saw all kinds of people milling about in the same shopping center, not even looking up. If they did look up I didn't see anyone stopping to point. That speaks to me about so many of God's wonders. How often do I pass by an everyday miracle or provision of the Lord like it's a commonplace thing? Where and when did I lose the awe?

Praying over meals: I'm often halfway through a bite - or even a plate - before I remember to stop and pause, realizing the gift food is. I know that American women have an obsessive love-hate relationship with their bodies. I have never met a woman who is satisfied. Never. What must this obsession do to the heart of the God who calls us "fearfully and wonderfully made" and whose continual thoughts towards us are "like the sands of the sea"?

As soon as the sun breaks through the rain clouds I know to look up. Can I train myself - can we train ourselves to "look up" every time we smile from pleasure, share an embrace, hear a child's laugh, find a penny on the ground, take another breath and see that we're still alive?

Can we look up every time the Word of God pierces our heart whether for encouragement or conviction, knowing that we serve a Father loving enough to raise up his children right?

May God help me to stop focusing on the scuff marks on my shoes and to look up and praise the One who is most certainly looking down at me.