Sometimes you set out to paint a beautiful blue sky and when you get your brushes cleaned, paints out, and easel placed perfectly in the middle of  the field clouds come and thunder begins to boom. Heavy drops fall, and you look around only to notice your paints are getting wet and the once warm air has chilled.

You thought you were going to paint blue with acrylic, and you end up with gray and watercolor.  You thought you were going to smile today, but instead you ended up crying. You thought you were going into safety only to discover you were betrayed by the gray you missed hiding behind the blue. And when the skies part you become exposed to truth. And every word, every fear, jealous and insecure thought and action of the storm you didn’t see coming now showers you with an unfamiliar harshness.

No one is around you in this field. You fall on your knees, cover you head from the storm, and begin to cry to God. The wind picks up, and you can hear the nails of the easel squeak and your palette of paint being moved by the force of the wind.  You keep your head down and just pray. You pray for clarity, peace, safety, and grace. The storm gets worse. The easel crashes to the wet ground, and the table your paints were so carefully laid out upon now has been picked up by the wind and tossed across the field. The tempest is violent, and it takes everything you have to concentrate on your prayer and not the storm. “Now, God, Now! Save me now!” you shout.

Slowly, the wind becomes gentle. Still unsure, you keep your head down. The air turns slightly sweeter, and you notice your clothes, hair, and skin are drying. Then you feel your face and realize your tears have also dried. Your body is sore from being down so long, but the breaking sun soothes you and caresses your body as you stretch to the sky. You survey the damage and ask yourself, “How do I begin to clean all this up? Where do I even begin?”

And then you see it. You walk over to the canvas which had been blown far from you. Standing right in front of it you see the most beautiful rainbow painted upon the muddied and beaten canvas. Remnants of paint glisten from the tips of the grass all over the field. You stand in awe and look up and see the canvas was reflecting the glorious rainbow in the sky.

Sometimes you set out to paint a blue sky and end up with a rainbow. In these moments you realize even if you don’t get what you set out to enjoy, and you feel beaten and cursed, that what you learn from the experience can be exactly the reason God had you in the field in the first place. Your reason for being there might not have been His reason. And if we trust, especially in the storms, we will come to understand that His understanding is greater than our own, His expectations are mightier than what we could ever fathom, and His plan and promises will be revealed to us exactly when He deems we are ready.

“ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Genesis 9:16