Drops or Droplets??
Ever heard of a white rainbow? Better yet ever seen one? I haven’t and only just came across the fact that they even exist.
It is sometimes called a fogbow—it is similar to a rainbow in that the light has to enter the very small water droplets of fog at the best angle. Because the droplets are so small most of the light is scattered rather than refracted as in a rainbow. As a result, the colours are washed out, yet leaving a stark beauty.
In a rainbow, the plump raindrops also have to pick up the light at the right angle but because the raindrops are about 100 times bigger than the fog droplets, the light is refracted prism-like and we see the colours.
The combination of light and water and its effect got me to thinking of Jesus as the Light of the World and the movement of the Word and the Holy Spirit we often speak of as flowing to and through us. Way back in Deuteronomy the Lord said “My teaching will drop like the rain, my saying will drip like the mist” (NET Deut. 32:2). We are blessed to live in a constant state of being receivers, which we easily forget and think of ourselves as being doers. Remembering the fogbows and the rainbows—they each have to be at the best angle to the sun to be able to receive its light and display the bow. And neither would even exist without the sun (in our case, the Son). But the essence of God-life, the Holy Spirit, is with us always. We also have the written Word freely available in a way many of our forbears never did. However, to receive there has to be a receptacle (or a mindset) ready and waiting. Are my “spiritual receptacles” like the raindrops –plump and ready to receive and refract the life and love of God out to others? Or have I been distracted (or diffracted) by the busyness of doing or by the ‘shiny things’ of life to the point that my receptacles are 100 times too tiny to do the fullness of the job they could do??
Notice both the rainbow and the fogbow are easily recognised as natural wonders and works of art; their identity as bows being clear in each case. Similarly, whichever receptacles of light and water we are making available to the Light of the World to work with and through, our identity hasn’t changed—we are still His children (or His drops or droplets). The beauty of his determination to finish the work he has started in each of us will prevail. And we find in both Ezekiel and Revelation references to rainbows in describing the glory of the Lord. Though the scattered or diffracted colours of the fogbow don’t change its function, the beauty and glory of our God seems to be always described in rainbow colours and stunning gems. I may never see a rainbow again (or a fogbow if I’m lucky enough to find one) without thinking of the rainbow beauty of God’s life that he wants to share with and through me.
Photos courtesy Unsplash