Given that rainbows are common as heavy rain is stopping, this is particularly appropriate after the 'Mother of Storms' of the flood. From now on the judgement of the flood will never be repeated and a perpetual reminder of this covenant will be the rainbow. In Genesis chapter 9, after the catastrophic judgement of the great flood, God announces to the survivors – Noah and his family – that from now on he will make a covenant (a promise) with humanity and all living creatures. Thinking about what an image of a rainbow can mean reminds me that what is almost certainly the oldest use of the rainbow as a symbol occurs at the very start of the Bible, where it's God who uses it. I think it's typical of God's ingenuity to produce something so glorious from just light and water droplets. I marvel not just at the beauty of the rainbow but of its extraordinary simplicity. It is not surprising that lots of people identify with the rainbow image. I gather the former use a rainbow with six colours and the latter with seven, but there are probably many people waving the wrong flag! The rainbow symbol has been used to show support for many things and there is a rainbow of claimants to the ownership of the rainbow symbol and no one has the monopoly on it. Some people have hung them to celebrate solidarity with the LGBTQ+ movement while others to show their support for the NHS. There are a lot of rainbows around at the moment – hanging from windows, chalked on walls and fluttering from flagpoles.
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