The Promise

        Everytime I go home to Baguio City, I always secretly wish for rain or drizzle to fall down as I start going up Marcos highway or Kennon Road.  Sure it makes the road all muddy and slippery, but that is just the nature of this mountain city.   

        I always regarded the water droplets falling from the sky as a sort of a welcome greeting for me.  The clouds splash water on the windshield as if saying to me, "Welcome back, Florent!  It's nice to see you again. Here's some welcome rain for you."

        As I get off the vehicle I always fill my lungs with the cool morning air, breathing in the coolness and the freshness all around me.  It never fails to invigorate my body and my mind.  And as the cold mountain air seeps into my flesh and bones, it wakes up my spirit and makes me feel more alive than ever.  If for this experience alone, a visit to Baguio is well worth it.

        But a stronger reason for me to visit Baguio City is to be a witness again to "God's Promise".  Like a Storm of Perfection, "God's Promise" manifests itself only after the rain has stopped -- a testament to His power and glory.

        The city always shows its beauty and splendor after an afternoon rainshower.  After a rain, the air is so fresh and clean; I can even smell the fresh scent of the plants and the trees as they rejoice in the water that has seeped into their roots.  The air is so clear that I can see the mountains far away in the distance unobstructed by dust and haze.  The leaves of the plants and the trees are glistening wet and the houses by the mountainside look so shiny and clean.

        "Look up in the sky!"

        From our home, looking over the next hill where Saint Louis University stands, up over the horizon and extending into the sky I can see the ring of colors gracing the afternoon sky. God's Promise, a RAINBOW, majestically appears in the horizon, towering above all of us like an arc of fire.  And as I look beside it, a secondary rainbow, faint, but larger than the first one, can be seen.

       It's a splendidly beautiful sight indeed!  It's a sight unmatched by any other.

       As a child, my playmates and I thought that there was a "golden pot" at the end of the rainbow.  From our point of view at home, the rainbow appeared to "land" behind the hill where Saint Louis University was located, which was in the area of Aurora Hill.  Since we had relatives living in that place, we would go there and frolick in the hills, digging and looking in some nooks and crannies for that "pot of gold".   We never found it.

       I was always held in awe by such a sight when I was a kid.  "Rainbow! Rainbow!", we would shout gleefully while pointing at the sky.  My elementary school teacher taught us how to "produce" a rainbow using a glass prism.  It had none of the beauty of the rainbow in the sky. 

        Indeed, there can only be one.

 
Note to myself: Next time I go up to Baguio, come home early after a rain to catch the rainbow.  Take pictures...  Many pictures.

 

Rainbow Quotes:

"Life is a rainbow."

"Remember that if you want to see a rainbow, you must endure the rain."

"Every cloud has a silver lining, and every rainy day leaves behind a special gift... a rainbow.

"No matter how bad the storm, there will always come a bright new day.  That is God's promise, and God always keeps His promises."