Every time we see a rainbow, we can’t help but wonder at it.
Although there are explanations as to how a rainbow is formed, yet there is a mystery about it.
Maybe it is the colours that are attractive; maybe because we wonder what are at the ends of the rainbow; maybe because it is arched over the sky that makes it prominent and at the same time subtle.
Whatever it may be, in the 1st reading, we heard of what the rainbow symbolizes in the Bible, when God said:
“Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all generations. I set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth”.
So the Biblical meaning of the rainbow is that it is a sign of the Covenant between God and man.
In its essence, God states the Covenant as such: I give you everything, with this exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it. I will demand an account of every man’s life from his fellow man.
He who sheds man’s blood, shall have his blood shed by man, for in the image of God, man was made.
So the rainbow reminds us that God has given us everything.
He only wants us to respect the life of every person, for every person is created in the image of God.
We don’t need rainbows to remind us of that. For every person is a mysterious rainbow pointing to who God is.