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Most of you probably learned a very important word when you were just a few years old that affected your interaction with other children and even adults. That word was “mine”. If you had something and another child or adult tried to take it, you probably clutched it tightly and said, “No, this one’s mine and you need to get your own”. This attitude likely continued for a few years until someone taught you the importance of sharing. You learned that even when something truly does belong to you, it is sometimes necessary to share it with others. However, even then, you always knew that nobody has the right to forcefully take what is yours without your permission.

In Monday’s blog post, Katie briefly mentioned how society has lost the true meaning of the rainbow as God’s promise to all mankind. I’ll take it one more step and say that some in society have actually STOLEN the symbol of the rainbow to use it for their agendas. It’s kind of like when people use God’s holy Word to justify slavery, murder, divorce, racism, and sexism. They are taking something that does not belong to them and using it for their purposes. I believe that is exactly what the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community has done with their “rainbow flag”. This symbol has become a sign of social inclusion for them. It all sounds great in theory and most of us would agree that it’s important to make people feel included. We would even rightly say that Christ loves them, so we must also show them love. However, those good feelings and intentions do not change one important and indisputable fact that is found in Scripture – that the rainbow belongs to God and God alone!

As Katie quoted the verses from Genesis 9 in that post, you could see that God says, “I have set MY rainbow in the clouds” (v. 13 [caps mine]). He goes on to promise to Noah that he will never again flood the whole earth and destroy all life with water, and that HIS rainbow will be the sign of this promise. That doesn’t mean God is giving his rainbow to us. It means he is choosing to share it with us. He chooses to let us see his sign so that we can have hope, but that does not mean we have the right to take it and use it how we want. We must only see it as a sign of God’s mercy, as he has promised not to give us what we deserve and what he has already shown he has the power to do. All we have to think about to understand that he has kept that promise is the reality that God sent the original flood when sin was just getting started in mankind. Many thousands of years later, we have only fallen deeper and deeper into our own wickedness and he has still not destroyed us with water again!

There is one pop culture use of the rainbow symbol that I find to be Biblically accurate, albeit inadvertently. I doubt that the people who came up with the advertising slogan for Skittles were thinking about God when they did. Yet, they invite us to “taste the rainbow”. It’s probably one of the more popular slogans for candy that are out there and it has had great sticking power as it’s been around for years. It certainly makes me want to grab a handful right now and taste the goodness of the flavors. But I got to thinking about how the Lord invites us to experience his promises in this way as well. In Psalm 34:8, David encourages us: “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him”. If you think about what that means, it’s the amazing and understanding grace of God on display. He is not conditionally loving us and demanding that we “swallow” it all right away. Through his servant David, he invites those who are seeking him and still unsure if they can trust him fully to just get a little “taste”. God knows that a little taste will allow us to experience just a tiny bit of his goodness and blessing and will make us long for more.

So, have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Have you tasted the rainbow? The second part of that verse written by David explains that we can be blessed by choosing to take refuge in God rather than something else that is only temporary in this world. When hope seems to be fading because your trials are overwhelming you, begin by “tasting” God’s promises until you get to the point where they are all that you want to consume. The rainbow is the sign of just one of God’s many promises, all of which are “yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). If you have not experienced this goodness, I invite you, and more importantly God invites you, to “taste and see” for yourself. Once you’ve tasted the goodness of the rainbow, nothing but God and his promises will ever satisfy you.