Why are there so many songs about rainbows? Well, nowadays, there seems to be more posts about rainbows that have strayed so far from the biblical origin.

The rainbow was given by God after the Great Deluge as a covenant "between me and the earth....Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (Genesis 9:13ff) But now, it has become a symbol of gay pride that some believers feel angry about the hijack. There's even a movement to take the rainbow back because God owns it. But I have to ask: If God owns it, then surely, nobody can take it from Him? No matter how much they try, right? Perhaps, instead of "taking it back," we can see this as a way of reaching out to the community whom God loves as much as anybody else. The discussion of the origins of the rainbow can be a starting point instead of those verses that condemn their lifestyle. Would you listen to somebody who talks of nothing but condemnation for you? Of course not. Even Jesus did not condemn the adulteress (John 8:1-11), the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-25), and the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10) so why do we do the very thing that Jesus never did and not do what He did---offer a promise and hope for a new beginning? And that is what the rainbow is all about.

Zeroing in on anti-gay verses will only make the community angry and hurt all the more. We must remember that they are coming from a life of trying to gain acceptance and not be seen as a freak. They also need and want love, just like the rest of us. The story of the rainbow and how it came to be offers hope to all of us. It is a great equalizer as the flood came because "the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways." (Genesis 6:11-12) Did you catch the word, "all"? Everyone had become corrupt and everyone was punished. But after the great deluge and the appearance of the rainbow, everyone receives the promise.

Reaching out to the community is not about us and them, it is about all of us. We may not come from the same background but we all have fallen short (Romans 3:9-18). It just so happened that our sin is different from theirs but in the eyes of God, we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and repentance. Let us not take back something that was never lost but take back the lost to the loving arms of God.