“Do ya think there is any gold at the end of that rainbow, Dad?” Chelsea was smirking as she leaned over the back of the front seat of the pickup and pointed across the lake.
“Yep, there's always gold at the end of a rainbow,” I said. “Twenty thousand green Irish leprechauns don't lie. The only problem is that the end of that rainbow over there is a powerful long ways off. I just know if we stopped the truck, unloaded the boat and roared over there to fetch the gold, just as soon as we got close, those darn leprechauns would move the end of the rainbow. Ya just can't trust guys in green tights.”
I chuckled at my own ingenious story. But there was some truth to it. As far as I knew, the physics of refracted light dictated that it was impossible for a person to stand right over the end of a rainbow and still have the rainbow fixed in sight. “Looks like we get to see yet another one of your cockeyed stories tested and proved wrong,” said Linda.
Sure enough as we roared down the road beside Lac la Hache, the rainbow began to move in front of us. Soon instead of seeing just one end of the rainbow we could see both ends and everything in between. It began to shrink in size and it became as brilliant as if it was painted in acrylics. As we hurtled down the road, one end of the rainbow was resting on the lake about a hundred yards to the right of our truck and the other end was about the same distance in a farmer's hay field to the left. The whole rainbow affair was moving in front of us, or at least with us. And then as the road and the lake took a sharp turn to the right, lo and behold we drove right over the end of the rainbow, or at least right through it.
“Ha! You are so wrong!” Chelsea spoke with the satisfaction only a 14-year-old can muster on the occasion of a parent being caught flatfooted and erroneous. Surprisingly, I had no retort. The Spirit of God was already dealing with me, goading me in whatever part of my being that my stories come out of.
What the Spirit began to goad me with was a question. What if it was that simple? What if there really was gold at the end of a rainbow, or money growing on trees, or geese that laid golden eggs, or 54-million-dollar lotteries that you actually had a reasonable chance to win? This autumn, as often happens with the Cariboo ministry, we are financially strapped. Our income is down at every level. As usual, it is keeping me awake at nights. In the long sleepless nights I often fantasize about money growing on trees or collecting at the end of rainbows and such. It sure would make doing mission work for Christ a lot easier. It sure would make my life a lot easier.
But it has never been that way. just as soon as God calls his people to engage in a mission for him, it seems the resources bucket shows up with a hole in it. Oddly, when I read my Bible, that's always the exciting part. It's the part where God gives the tree, shows up with a ram, blows in with manna and quail, points out five smooth stones. I love those parts of the Bible stories … those parts where God whips in and provides for his servants just at the last moment.
Or is it at just the right moment? When I first became a Christian, the story in the Bible of abraham marching up the mountain to sacrifice his son Isaac was my least favourite story. As a father of a couple of young sons at the time of my conversion, I just couldn't get my head around the thing. Over the years of my faith, it has become one of my favourite Bible stories. Abraham is asked by God to do what all other gods of the land and of the day demanded to assure prosperity; i.e. give up your first born son in a rite of human sacrifice. When God showed up with a ram for Abraham, at first reading of the story it seems a “last moment” kind of thing (Gen. 22:14). But when I read it more carefully, it is clear that it is a “right moment” kind of thing. It is through the experience of running out of provision and having to absolutely depend on God, that Abraham comes to know God as not only expressly different from all other gods, but as “the Lord will provide.” This revealing of God is so important in the story that Abraham memorializes the teaching by naming the mountain Yahweh Yir'eh — the Lord provides (Gen. 22:8, 14). The interesting thing is, the phrase in the story usually translated “the Lord will provide” can also be literally translated as the “Lord will see” and later the “Lord will be seen.” Through meeting a need when abraham was at the end of himself and all other provision, at just the “right time,” God is revealed to abraham so profoundly that it is as if he is visible. WOW! I'll take that over pots of gold and lottery wins every time.
God revealed through providing. I've never thought about it very much but my experience with luck, as in pots of gold at the end of rainbows or pots of money at the end of lotteries and such, has never been very good. My experience with God providing, usually at just the right moment, has been profound. I don't believe in luck. I believe in God and his providence. Calvin Brown, the Presbyterian minister who baptized me when I was 30 taught me that. Like him, I won't even allow for potluck dinners … we call them potprovidence dinners. I even go one further, every time God provides, he is revealed. Remember that, the next time you have a pot-providence dinner or celebrate the Lord's Table and you will be richly blessed.
In the mid seventies, Merla Watson wrote a praise song celebrating the abrahamic concept of “God Will Provide.” at the time it was titled “Jehovah-Jireh.” In our congregation we sing it using the more biblically correct transliteration, Yahweh-Yir'eh.
JEHOVAH-JIREH [YAHWEH-YIR'EH]
by Merla Watson
Jehovah Jireh [Yahweh Yir'eh],
my Provider,
His grace is sufficient for me,
for me, for me;
Jehovah Jireh [Yahweh Yir'eh],
my Provider,
His grace is sufficient for me.
My God shall supply all my needs
according to His riches in glory;
He will give His angels charge
over me,
Jehovah Jireh [Yahweh Yir'eh]
cares for me, for me, for me,
Jehovah Jireh [Yahweh Yir'eh]
cares for me.
1974 Gordon V. Thompson Music C.C.L.I. #710966
