A Perfect Double Rainbow

Earlier this evening I saw the most beautiful double rainbow while at work…

And I couldn’t wait to come home and share the experience with all of you!

A rainstorm went through the area tonight, moving from west to east before it headed out over Lake Michigan. While the sky above the lake was still dark with storm clouds, the cloud cover along the western horizon had cleared, allowing beams of direct sunlight to pierce the gloom over the water. A ghostly white mist shrouded the smooth surface of the lake as a complete end-to-end double rainbow materialized, arrayed in glowing colors of magnificent splendor!

The vibrancy and sharpness of the colors was astounding, due to the contrast of the dark, hazy lake background on which these rainbows had seemed to be painted. If I hadn’t seen this scene that was straight out of a fantasy with my own two eyes, I could never have understood or fully appreciated another person’s description of the same vision, no matter how detailed or passionate they might have been; I would’ve thought that they had to be exaggerating.

Really though, it seemed as if God had pulled a little chain and turned on a huge neon sign in the sky in the shape of a double rainbow, the colors were so bright and clear! I admit I had gone a little crazy, running from department to department in the resort’s lobby, loudly proclaiming to anyone within an earshot, “AWESOME RAINBOW ALERT! AWESOME RAINBOW ALERT!” Soon, the large patio facing the lake became crowded with onlookers of every age ignoring the last of the falling raindrops, each soul rapt with awe and appreciation for viewing this divine gift of nature’s supreme beauty.

Then, in a matter of only a few minutes, the rainbow's luminescence began to fade until at last, there remained only the mere suggestion of prismatic color in the sky. A few lucky people had digital cameras with them and were able to take some pretty nice photos, I imagine.

I am reminded by this rainbow’s quick appearance and disappearance, of the temporary and fleeting nature of what we call life. How unimaginable must the grandeur and true nature of the universe be, if one such as I am able to see the perfection and dazzling beauty of a rainbow, yet on another level altogether grasp through this metaphor, the infinitesimally short nature of our lives.