Fall 1982
A Man in the Rain

When light breaks through from the side of the skies
And finds itself caught and impaled and it dies
In the rain that descends from the dark cloud above,
A rainbow is seen, a sign of God’s Love.

Oh, the colors were there in the light all along
But only the rain can bring out the song
That’s been sung by the glory around heaven’s throne:
Light’s manifold nature displayed and made known.

When the ark came to rest on Ararat’s Horn
And Noah went forth into mankind’s new morn,
God’s judgment drew back with the storm on the wane
And His mercy shone forth in the sunlight’s new reign.

These two seeming foes did meet in the bow
That was set in the clouds God’s promise to show
Both to Him and to us the witness of light
That’s been caught in the rain, making peace of the fight.

Has your heart ever looked with wonder and awe
At the bow in the cloud and sensed more than you saw
In the judgment and mercy that met in the rain
And looked beyond that to the Lamb that was slain?

Look—A man just like us who lived life in our shade
And by that pure life a pure light He displayed
That shone with compassion and candor and grace
From Bethlehem’s manger to the skull’s awful place.

And there did God’s wrath and His love fully meet
Finding perfect fulfillment: A work that’s complete.
The whole spectrum of love through sorrow and pain
Was declared unto us by a man in the rain.

Thomas Worth