Redeeming the Rainbow

Going back to the true meaning of the rainbow—what is it? How did it gain a different meaning?

For centuries, we have seen an amazing phenomenon called the rainbow. “A rainbow is caused by sunlight and atmospheric conditions. Light enters a water droplet, slowing down and bending as it goes from air to denser water. The light reflects off the inside of the droplet, separating into its component wavelengths—or colors. When light exits the droplet, it makes a rainbow,” (“What Causes a Rainbow?”). The cool thing about a rainbow is that it is actually a full circle, but we usually only see half of it, which appears as a bow or arch.

Typically, people have seen the rainbow as a sign of good luck, wellness, happiness, or good health. Historically, the rainbow was given to the earth by God as a covenant to remind us that He will never flood the earth again (Genesis 9). A covenant is an agreement, like a contract or a seal between two parties. The reason that God decided to flood the earth was because of how many people became disobedient and began following the ways of sin. Thankfully, he told Noah, one of the last followers of God at that time, to build an ark so that he could take one of every animal with him before the earth was flooded. He also told Noah to take his family—his wife, his three sons, and their wives. After the earth was flooded for 40 days and destroyed everything, they were finally able to leave the ark. This is when God created the rainbow to remind us of his promise to never flood the earth again. So, the rainbow is a symbol of hope, promise, and covenant for all people.

In today’s world, we see rainbows as the symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. For many years, rainbows have been appearing everywhere—on social media, on websites, on apparel, at festivals, etc. In this context, the rainbow is being used as a symbol of love, diversity, and it represents the world’s spectrum of human sexuality. When thinking of it in this way, I can see how choosing the rainbow as a graphic element makes sense. There are a variety of colors, which can represent differences/diversity. However, the LGBTQ+ community used to use a different symbol—a green carnation.

Starting in 1892, the green carnation was usually pinned to someone’s clothing to indicate their lifestyle. The rainbow wasn’t introduced as an LGBTQ+ symbol until the American designer, Gilbert Baker created the rainbow flag in 1978. Baker was urged by Harvey Milk to create a symbol of pride for the LGBTQ+ community. He decided that a flag was the best way to solve this issue, and he saw the rainbow as “a natural flag from the sky,” (Gonzalez).

Over the summer, I felt a push to create a graphic design campaign called “Redeeming the Rainbow.” As a Christian, I have felt the pain of seeing God’s creation as a representation of a sinful lifestyle. Not only that, but the rainbow was created as a promise to all. Unfortunately, the LGBTQ+ community has made it exclusionary. By no means am I a perfect person, and by no means am I saying that this lifestyle is worse than other sins—I have my own share of struggles with sin. My goal for this campaign is simply to inform everyone about the full backstory of the rainbow and to reaffirm Christians in their use of the rainbow. When God created the rainbow, he promised to remember his covenant whenever a rainbow appears—the covenant he made between him and the earth. This means that this covenant is for all of us, all life, all of the earth. This also means that he still remembers his covenant today, it’s not something of the past or something that only happened in the Bible. Every time you see or take a picture of a rainbow, God is still remembering his promise to us, and it should remind us as well. It should remind us of the mercy, grace, and love that God has shown us, even when we choose to do the wrong thing.

The very first covenant that God made was the covenant of marriage between man and woman. Any other lifestyle rebels against that covenant. It is the attitude of rebellion that God hates, not those who are pursuing that rebellion. It is not what he intended, and not what he designed our bodies to be pursuing—that is made clear through the biology of male and female bodies. This design was not made to limit us, for God’s creation is good and works well when lived out according to its intention. When we choose to live according to his design, we can find more liberation and much more joy. When we choose an option outside of God’s design, we are living for ourselves and what we want for momentary pleasure—the enjoyment won’t last and will inevitably feel empty.

Graphically speaking, the rainbow is a beautiful icon and symbol that can be used on plenty of merchandise. It’s no wonder that we’re seeing it everywhere and seeing it implemented in so many ways. There’s also nothing quite like it, so it stands out no matter how you use it.

I intend to design a campaign for my design thesis class that is both informative as well as visually pleasing to look at—using the rainbow in different ways. My intention is to create merchandise that draws us back to the original meaning of the rainbow. In addition, I would like to create an informational resource (platform TBD) for anyone to go to for more history and background information on this topic.

For Christians, especially, today’s world is difficult to navigate. Because the rainbow is so widely accepted as the symbol for the LGBTQ+ community, Christians are afraid to use or even enjoy the rainbow. It stands for a lifestyle that is contrary to our beliefs. There’s no denying that the rainbow was created for everyone, but it has been taken and twisted into a new context. The rainbow is not a human design, it is a God design, and should remain that way. I believe in redeeming the rainbow back to its original meaning and the truth that it holds. For Christians, this means reigniting our love of the rainbow, teaching our children about what it means, and being reassured that it still represents the same covenant that God made long ago, and continues to uphold today.

I am currently selling t-shirts and stickers/art prints as promotion for this campaign! Feel free to take a look and purchase whatever you'd like.

If you would like to dive deeper into information about this topic, here is a blog post by Hungry Generation Church about Redeeming the Rainbow.