promises

Promises are only meaningful, depending upon the character of the person who makes them.  Yet, promises require something else: they must have someone to embrace them.

Not only do I love the reality depicted in the above image, but I greatly treasure the symbolism it suggests.  There are multiple layers of meaning conveyed.  I congratulate the photographer, for the high Art of this picture.  It is lovely; it elevates my spirit wonderfully.

Altogether, the image speaks powerfully to me, of God's promises. The focus of attention, of course, is the double rainbow.  We are explicitly told, in Scripture, that God, "willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath..." (Hebrews 6:17).  In other words, God guarantees his own promises -- by a kind of doubling His Word of promise, by an oath.  Thus the double rainbow is as if God were saying, that His promises are sure.  Indeed, they are.

The sign of those promises, moreover, appears against the background of a majestic and endless range of mountains.  The mountains themselves extend into the very clouds of heaven, where the height of the mountains cannot therefore be known.  The mountains speak of the greatness, of the power, and of the unchangeableness of the One whose promises are bespoken in the ephemeral rainbows....  Whereas the promise itself may sometimes seem difficult to lay hold of, so as to hold firmly in one's hands; yet, the character of Him who made the promise, is solid and lasting as the mountains, which ever testify of His faithfulness.

The rainbows, too, reach into the dark valley, below -- where hope is always most needed.  Their arching bows, like twin seraphs, fly heavenward and, so, direct the eye away from the obscure valley, toward the realms of Light, of freedom, and of tranquility.

The hillside, in the near view, is strewn with greenery and sprinkled with flowers; the freshness and newness of which seems to be illumined by the light of the rainbow itself, having appeared just after the showers of rain were ministered from above.

Finally (and fittingly so), we consider what means the beautiful figure standing, alone -- and so high upon the mountainside.  It is of course a woman; but not a woman, merely.  She is a Bride, dressed in her wedding gown and holding a bouquet of flowers.  But why is she alone?  And why is she...here?

Observe, if you will, where her gaze is fixed: on the rainbow; on the promise.  She seems to be waiting.  Ready, and waiting.  Doubtless, longing to be united with her Beloved, she has thus prepared herself and gone out to meet Him.  So anxious is she to discern His appearing, that she is willing to climb the steep and difficult places, where her view of heaven may be less obstructed.

She appears, to my mind, too, as the Monarch of the very world she has now surmounted (overcome).  She is the Jewel of God's Creation.  She is the Bride of Christ.  She is the heir of the promises of God.  They are Hers, for, He is hers, and she is His.  His promises are the seal of His Covenant with her and to her.  His promises are the surety of His love to her.  And the earnestness wherewith she embraces those promises, signifies how true and how strong is her love for Him.

God has given us promises, each and every one of which is assured by His divine character.

With what desire and love, then, have I embraced those promises?  How, truly, do I love Him, in His Word?