Allison Campbell Jensen

The rainbow hung low, skimming the horizon, as the bus roared up the hill on Hwy. 36. Did anyone else see it, engrossed in the content on their phones?

Don’t misunderstand, please: Believe me, most days commuting home, that would be me, but yesterday I was too tired, after a work day of looking at a computer screen. Maybe the driver? He might have seen it, too. He wasn’t as challenged as typically because traffic levels were light because we’re in Minnesota, the day before the Independence Day holiday begins, and everyone who has a cabin (or a relative with a cabin) has left for The Lake. That cabin is typically Up North, BTW, if you’re not from here.

Resisting the urge to shout “Hey, look at that rainbow everybody!” I sat back and took it in: The reminder that God put a rainbow in the sky after the Flood receded as a sign that God would never again destroy the Earth. A rainbow is a sign of covenant, of promise, of love–and now, a sign of God’s love for everyone, as rainbows today can evoke the embrace of all people, any orientation (or not), any color, any nationality . . . anyone and everyone.

Long before I was a Christian, I was always chasing rainbows. As my mother loved a colorful sunset and hated to miss seeing one, I was and am overjoyed by rainbows. Still unclear on the physics after 61 years on the planet, I do know to look for them when the sun is shining after a rain. What a metaphor! What beautiful gifts to us from our home, Planet Earth! As I read today in a Happy Interdependence Day post: “Whether one believes in a Divine Creator who designed it and spoke it into being,” John Pavlovitz wrote, “or in a chance process that happened it over time, this planet is humanity’s home.”

According to my and most people’s understanding, this planet came into being with all its life forms and creatures over millennia. But that doesn’t preclude God acting in the world, at least within my understanding of God. And while God has promised not to destroy the Earth, God gave humans free will. If we don’t check our impulses and intentionally change our habits, we are on a path to destroy this beautiful Earth, our island home.

There is no Planet B. Let’s love the Earth–and each other.