One Saturday afternoon my family (which includes my wife, our four year-old daughter, our two year-old daughter, and our eleven-month-old son) was driving home from Saturday errand running. These errands take place about thirty minutes away from home, so we have a substantial amount of car time which usually involves the game "I-spy," dance parties while listening to music on the radio, or silent nap time for all those not driving. However, this drive home was unique. It had been dark, cloudy, and raining all day. Right as we got into the car to head home, we spotted the sun starting to peak out from behind the clouds. Upon seeing the sun, my wife asked the kids if they saw a rainbow. At first, this question was met with sluggish responses. Yet, the more the sun and rain clouds continued to share space in the sky, the more vigorously everyone in the van, including my wife and I, began looking for a rainbow. In fact, for the next fifteen to twenty minutes, with the radio off, everyone, including our eleven month old, seemed to gain enthusiasm about finding a rainbow. With the entire family engaged in this real-life version of "Where's Waldo," my wife exclaimed as she was pointing beyond the windshield window, "I found it!" Sure enough, there in the sky was a beautiful rainbow.
This wild exercise in the car got me thinking. Each member in our van was looking with certainty for the rainbow. There was never a question of whether a rainbow existed. No, instead the question was "WHERE is the rainbow?" This certainty afforded us the opportunity to take the time to look. Yes, it did take us nearly twenty minutes to look for it, it definitely was not an easy process, but in the end, it was totally worth it. In fact, the excitement was all the more when we found it. I believe this experience can teach us a lot about faith and family life. We believe that Christ is present in us and in our families. We believe that Jesus is always with us, but how often do we take the time to look for Him? In fact, in prayer, it is easy to find ourselves discouraged, questioning how close our God is to us and our hardships. More to it, life brings a mixed bag of dark and stormy rain clouds mixed with moments of complete sunshine. We never seem to be satisfied with this messiness. It's easy to pray away the storm clouds of life, and focus on the next moments of sunshine, but it is only in this messy "weather pattern" of life where we are able to experience a rainbow. It is also easy to fall into the trap of focusing too much time and energy looking at the storm clouds of heartache, pain, and suffering, and getting caught up in its darkness. It is easy to try and push away experiencing the pain that comes from the storms of life. It is also a trap to focus only on the sunshine, and ignore the suffering and burdens that our family members and friends carry. Instead, I believe we are called to sit amidst the sunshine and storm, embracing the reality that this beautiful mess and mixture of sun and cloud is what produces the rainbow.
Finally, as Christians, we are called to live our lives with certainty. This certainty comes from knowing that Jesus truly is always with us. We must challenge ourselves to change our questions from "Are you here, God?" to "Where are you?" We must challenge ourselves to look for him in each moment of the day, and in each face we see, with certainty that he's there. At times it will only take a moment to spot the rainbow of His face, but we know at times it may take twenty minutes, hours, or years for us to see Him. That does not mean He is not there, it is just a question of whether we are willing to take the time to look. Through this process of looking, our enthusiasm will naturally spread to those around us. Like the rainbow story, that started with my wife's question, over time and through her looking, her excitement and certainty spread to everyone in the van. So it is with life, when we live our lives with certainty, seeking Christ's face, it will naturally spread to those around us. This is family life. This is evangelization.
