Picture this. On holiday in Whitby, walking along West Cliff, looking out to sea. It has rained all morning, and is now reduced to a dreich mizzle. The sky lightens as the sun turns some of the clouds into a festival of cream and grey Lalique. Then, across the horizon, overarching two Victorian repro street lamps, a rainbow in watercolour lightens the sea and surrounding dark clouds.
Such beauty in a world that can be made to turn ugly, suddenly feeling unsafe and somehow darker. There are different kinds of darkness – hatred, lying, cruelty, racism and prejudice, violence, etc. – there is always an etcetera.
But, and this is the truth of the rainbow, there are different kinds of light – love, truth-telling, compassion, respect for persons and welcome, peace-making, etc. – here too, there is always an etcetera.
These are uncertain times, and one way or another we’ll have to choose how we will work our way through them towards a renewal of our shared life in our local communities, embracing and living into our wider social diversity. Looking at the photograph of those two street lamps, framed by an over-arching rainbow, I’m wondering what it might cost us to live towards the light as we work together at negotiating the cultural shifts we are living through. Speaking truth with bold humility, practising compassion as a habit of the heart, answering hate with love, overcoming fear with hope, converting complaint into gratitude. These would be a start.
Perhaps we can draw energy from this defiant confession of faith in Christ the Light of the World: “The light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1.5
Tapestry I designed as a visual interpretation of John 1.5. Completed Easter, 2021. (c) Jim Gordon.
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