trace it

I'm needing a little thankfulness tonight.  a reminder that even though I feel alone, I am not.  That even though this blanket of heaviness feels like it's going to stick around forever, it won't....that even though I feel misunderstood, I am known.  

Then I find this photo from my trip to Colorado and am reminded of how it was the most magnificent rainbow I've ever seen with my own eyes.   And at the wedding where we saw it, everyone just stopped and gazed.

jaw-dropping beauty.

And then God brings this song to mind.
My eyes well up with tears because of the reminder.  
that He seeks me in my pain, and
even though I may not see the promise,
I can trace it with my finger---confident that it is there.
And suddenly, my heart is lighter.

1. O Love that wilt not let me go,
   I rest my weary soul in thee;
   I give thee back the life I owe,
   That in thine ocean depths its flow
   May richer, fuller be.
2. O light that foll’west all my way,
   I yield my flick’ring torch to thee;
   My heart restores its borrowed ray,
   That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
   May brighter, fairer be.
3. O Joy that seekest me through pain,
   I cannot close my heart to thee;
   I trace the rainbow through the rain,
   And feel the promise is not vain,
   That morn shall tearless be.
4. O Cross that liftest up my head,
   I dare not ask to fly from thee;
   I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
   And from the ground there blossoms red
   Life that shall endless be.

-George Mattheson, pub. 1882