Rainbows = Love

Today on my way to volunteer at my church to help put together meals for people without food, I saw this BEAUTIFUL rainbow and felt like God was there with me saying, yep, you're doing just as you're meant to do.  When I got home and reflected on it, this struck me on a few levels...on one, I believe that God's behind that rainbow, but on the other, I identify with rainbows as a symbol of pride, hope, love, and welcoming among the LGBT community and its supporters.  I didn't really think of it as two separate KINDS of rainbows until I googled "god rainbow" for inspiration and realized there's a movement to "take the rainbow back" so to speak - as if to say "it's God's rainbow and he didn't' make it to share it with the gays."  I was kind of stunned by this at first -- to me God is Love! Since God sent the first (biblical) rainbow as a promise and a symbol of hope to all of god's creatures, how did we get so far away from that as to say "he only meant it for those creatures who are or wish to be in opposite-gendered relationships?"  The LGBT community uses the rainbow flag not only to show their pride and solidarity, but most often it's seen as a sign of welcome -- a rainbow flag outside an establishment means ALL are welcome (and not only LGBT people either)! It's a sign of a safe haven in a world where not only was it uncomfortable or out of fashion to be "out" and "gay", but your very LIFE was threatened by it due to hate, ignorance, and fear.  With the passing of marriage equality, I really believed that we were on a path to something bigger and more tolerant, accepting and loving.  Today I realized we're not quite there yet.  Still, I took that rainbow as a sign of love and hope and a promise from God that he is there for all his creatures, and felt peace in my heart.  We've got some more work to do, but in MY opinion, we have God behind us 😉