To say that April was a rainy month is an understatement. In 1921, Al Jolson wrote a song for the Broadway musical Bombo called April Showers. A famous line from the song says, “Though April showers may come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May.” It’s a metaphor for the problems of life and a reminder that they are temporary. The song provides hope that brighter and better things are just around the corner.
Now, while that would provide a great segue into a devotional about life’s ups and downs, I’m going to go a different direction with this. After the storm, what do you commonly see? A rainbow. And on special occasions, you get to see a double rainbow.
I understand the science behind the first rainbow, but I wondered about the double bow. How does that form? Let me share the mechanics with you. It all boils down to refraction and reflection.
The Weather Guys from the University of Wisconsin write, “Raindrops act as prisms, bending (refracting) and reflecting the sunlight that falls on them, just like a crystal hung in a sunny window.
“As light enters water, the path it takes changes. How much the direction changes is a function of the color of the light…If the light beam entering the raindrop reaches the back of the drop at a certain angle, it undergoes a reflection and heads back toward the sun. As the light exits the raindrop and re-enters the air, its path bends (refracts) an amount that again depends on the color. This bending of the light as it enters and leaves the drop disperses the light of the sun into its spectrum of colors that form the rainbow.
“Sometimes the light reflects twice off the back of the raindrop; this leads to the secondary rainbow.”1 “Because the twice-reflected light has had two chances to be transmitted out the back of the raindrop rather than reflected back toward the observer, the secondary bow is much fainter than the primary and frequently cannot be seen at all; it’s typical for a secondary rainbow to be visible only at certain points along the arc.”2
Here’s what surprised me and I had never noticed it before. In school, we were taught the acronym ROY G BIV, spoken like a person’s first name, middle initial, and last name. These are the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Next time you see a rainbow, look at how ROY G BIV is displayed. And if you see a double rainbow, you will notice that the second rainbow has the colors reversed. VIB G YOR. I
looked up a picture of a double rainbow and, sure enough, it was a mirror of the colors of the first rainbow.
I don’t think any child of God sees a rainbow without thinking about the first time one appears in Scripture. It happened after the cataclysmic global flood that destroyed all the people, plants, and animals except those eight people and the animals that were aboard the ark. Genesis 7:4, 12-16 tells us, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth…(12) And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (13) In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; (14) They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. (15) And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. (16) And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.”
Why would God have done this? Genesis 6:11-13 tells us, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. (12) And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. (13) And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
After the flood waters abated and the ark rested upon dry ground, all those who traveled in the floating zoo disembarked. Genesis 9:11-14 records a promise God made to them and all humanity. “And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. (12) And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: (13) I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. (14) And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.”
The formation of a rainbow may have scientific explanations but let’s never forget who created those principles and laws of nature. It was God who placed the first rainbow in the sky as a perpetual reminder of His promise. The beauty of the rainbow comes more from God’s promise than from the pretty colors, although we definitely enjoy the beauty of that as well.
While we love the rainbows and double rainbows that God places in the sky, there is a 
rainbow coming that will outshine any we’ve ever seen. Think about this scripture as you go through the day.
Revelation 4:1-3 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (2) And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. (3) And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
1https://wxguys.ssec.wisc.edu/2017/07/03/double-rainbow/
2https://www.straightdope.com/21343417/what-causes-double-rainbows-why-is-the-order-of-the-colors-reversed
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