All nature sings and 'round me rings the music of the sphere...

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a [person] could stake his life on it a thousand times. (Martin Luther)


This does not mean that we know with certainty what is going to happen, nor do we have any assurance that what we want to happen will actually happen. These two misconceptions frequently trip us up when we begin to talk about faith and what we call answered prayer.

In fact, I think it is significant that we maintain the honesty that we do not know what will happen, and we do not have all the answers. The point to me is simply this: we have daring confidence in God's grace. Period. We entrust our life and times to the One who alone can guide and sustain us, especially when what we want to happen does not happen.

Tears of joy and sorrow mingle together inseparably, irretrievably a part of our story as we walk in faith. Rather than feel bereft and alone, we may find that we are never left alone and disconsolate. At the point of our deepest need, God's love is deeper still (Corrie Ten Boom).

As the second photo above suggests, the sun appears to be a small pink dot on the horizon. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The screen of our point of view is just too small to take in the size of the sun. The sun must set, actually, dipping below our line of sight before the vivid colors splash against the clouds creating the spectacular visions that result.

Today at 4:08 CST I drove into a magnificent full blown rainbow, completely visible end-to-end, spanning miles in each direction and leaving me awed. I could not photograph it, but I yearned to capture and share it. When I got to my destination I stared at it and shared with a friend via text the sheer joy of taking in this sight. She later replied with the snapshot of a breathtaking sight that cannot be contained in a screen of a complete rainbow taken aboard her flight at about the same time, and she wrote:
"My full circle rainbow only could be seen when we were over full cloud cover, not when you could see land. Amazing!"

And on this Earth, we only see one-half a rainbow, do we not? The other side is beyond our ability to see. It appears to disappear, much like the sun. To see a bigger picture requires a different point of view. You know where I'm going with this.

Life can be like that. When we are encircled by clouds and confusing circumstances, our vision is obscured. We are unable to see what is because of what merely appears to be. The temptation is to agree that the appearance is actually what matters. For the believer, we trust the grace-gifts of God to supply our needs--our very vision when our sight is limited--so that we learn to walk by faith and trust, and not by sight.

We know through science that refraction or bending light to create a rainbow requires a certain percentage of moisture content and a certain degree angle. Then when the light passes through the water-filled atmosphere, particularly in the evening, the glorious parallel bands of ROYGBIV color spread across the sky. All those things were present in abundance today for this startlingly beautiful phenomenon. It is not magic, but the precise function of the creator of all nature. All creation attests to the magnificence of God, and He's still got the whole world in His hands.

Psalm 19: 1-3: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where the heavens' voice is not heard.