SEPTEMBER 11-12 -Before our very eyes

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stsrs, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him....? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands, you put everything under his feet....O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” - Psalm 8: 3-9.

A Salvation Army captain, Rachel Tickner, was working on the Island of Bute, in Scotland. Buses were infrequent, so to get to the town of Rothesay three miles away, she often walked along the coast road (picture left). One Spring day, when she was experienciing some difficulties in her work, the beauty of the snow-capped hills, the great variety of sea-birds, and the sight of a rainbow, lifted her spirits. Usually it's not possible to reach the end of a rainbow, but that day, the rainbow stretched from the other side of the Clyde estuary, right across to where Rachel was walking. To her amazement, it “walked” with her all the way into Rothesay.

C.S.Lewis in his book “Miracles,” writes: 'Each miracle writes for us in small letters something that God has already written, in letter almost too large to be noticed, across the whole canvas of nature....each carries the signiture of the God whom we know through conscience and from nature.'

The Bible reveals in the miracle of nature, not a magician, but a personal God, pwerful and loving, a God who, as Psalm 8: 3-9 says cares enough about us that He made us just “a little lower than the angels”... made us stewards – rulers, over His creation, to care for it and each other.

The miracle is, that despite man's irresponsibility and the damage we have caused to the earth over the centuries, God has kept on refreshing and renewing all that He makes, and we take so much for granted.- dew on the grass each morning – the pinhead seed that when planted in soil bursts out in blossoms and colours that no artist has ever been able to truly replicate. There are varieties of plants, birds and animals still to be discovered. Year by year yet more species are found.

Rachel said, “For all it's magnificence, the rainbow that day was not awesome, just ressuring and pleasant,” calming her mind and making the decisions she had to maje, clear. The rainbow is a sign of God's promise, and Rachel quoted from a song she knew....'Whenever you see a rainbow, remember God is love.'

Noah and his family safe after the flood, were told by God, “Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds....This is the sign of the covenant I have established between Me and all life on the earth' - Genesis 9: 16-17. Rachel believed God's promise, and was rewarded that day on her walk to Rothesay, not only to reach the end of the rainbow, but to have it 'walk' with her every step of her three mile way.

Today's song is the one Rachel quoted, an old children's song many a parent has taught their child - “When I See a Rainbow.”