Do you ever wonder why the rainbow is multi-coloured? Science says it has seven colours visible to the naked eye (ROYGBIV—you can go find out what each of the letters stands for). But why all seven? (There could possibly be more). Couldn’t God do with just one colour?
Has it occurred to you that after that infamous deluge in Genesis, God, when making peace with man, issued a rainbow as a sign of peace? Why was that? He’s God-he could have easily used a host of other objects or signs. It just didn’t have to be a coloured curve in the clouds, or did it?! At least, not after drowning several humans.
The polychromatic nature of the rainbow, God’s perfect peace symbol, is deeply instructive. Not to read into Genesis 9 (God’s covenant of peace with man, after the flood), but I see a lesson on unity-in-diversity to be drawn from the sheer colouring of the rainbow. The seven colours of the bow are distinctly different, and would be dull when viewed apart, but are of strikingly scenic when viewed together.
The Divinity of Unity in Diversity
Unity in diversity is a divine call and expectation by God, of all creation, especially humans, on whom He imprinted his divine image (Gen. 1:27). Crooked souls as we are, God has provided a common grace for us to co-exist as humans, in spite of our differences, exacerbated by the sin nature. The expectation of unity in diversity goes even notches hire for those whom God has sealed as His children or the Church (See 1 Corinthians 12). Now, we all know God is perfect. And so, all he makes is perfect, including humans, although not anymore because of the fall- Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” However, His love for imperfect people remains perfect and intentional.
The Number 7 as a symbol of Completion and Perfection
Bible scholars have long interpreted the number seven as a symbol of perfection, demonstrating His intentionality. God created the world in seven days- well, he rested on the seventh, not due to exhaustion, but due to the completion of his work. Furthermore more on the number seven, God commanded Noah to take seven pairs of all clean animals on the ark (Gen 7:2), several Hebrew Laws of religious festivals followed a pattern of the number seven (Leviticus 23), God summarily categorized into seven the nature the churches in all generations that have been and that will come into seven (Revelation 1:4-18). Okay, enough of the sevens, I know you get the point! Besides, it’s already past 7 PM, I should be winding down my screen time!
Okay, just one more. God created the earth as a pie and found it fit to split into seven continents: Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. People of diverse religions, cultures, and worldviews come from these continents! Could it have been by mistake or sheer happenstance? Not at all. In To answer the question spot on, Apostle Paul by divine revelation writes in Acts 17:26 that God created every human race and spread them across the earth: “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” What could possibly be more deliberate than that?
The rainbow and the continents have one thing in common: the number seven. If each colour in the rainbow’s array were to represent a continent, it would be akin to a painter’s masterful stroke on a beautiful piece of art, whose marvellous outcome would be a beautiful world of Different colours, One People.
To reiterate, our human identities as ‘Bazungu’, ‘Bayindi’, ‘Bafirika’, and others is a result of a deliberate, divine design. Our ethnic, religious, political, and other differences notwithstanding, we can still co-exist harmoniously.
However, why does that seem so hard? Why does the world continue to waste away in conflict? Why do we continue to sink in the stinking mud of racism, tribalism, classism, and all other destructive and divisive “isms”?
Well, from a biblical standpoint, the answer is simple and standard-sin- the source of all human depravity and the chaos in all creation. That said, ignorance is a fundamental flaw that comes with sin. Specifically, ignorance about the divine nature of man- not gender-specific- as bearer of the image of God (Genesis 1:27). This truth means that each human being-regardless of our differences and spiritual orientation- has an intrinsic worth—that invaluable divine quality that distinguishes them from all else God has made.
John Piper, an American Theologian and Author, in one of his publications titled The Image of God: An Approach to Biblical and Systematic Theology, John gives us one of the best definitions of the image of God: “that in man which constitutes him as he-whom-God-loves.” This quality remains, regardless of how it is distorted by our corrupted nature.
If other factors, such as phony diplomatic treaties, “Peace Talks”, the United Nations, and the like, won’t unite us and cause us to love one another, at least let the consideration that your least favourite person, is created in God’s image, inform your view and actions towards him/her.
The sooner we realize this, the faster we will learn to not waste our differences. And that way, Musoke, Mugisha, and Munduru will all embrace each other. It is in this unity that one plus one, plus another one, seven times (Okay, just one last time), will bring out the perfect or complete beauty that makes God smile. P.s A Muganda friend has told me that “Musoke” is the Luganda word for rainbow.
