(BLACK PR WIRE) -- As this summer comes, the next time a shower passes by look outside to see if there is a rainbow. If so, let it be a reminder of hope and promise.

Arguably the best natural light show on Earth, rainbows occur most often in the summer months as the ingredients necessary for a spectacular rainbow "" sun and rainfall "" are most abundant. The long and hotter days provide more opportunities for a rainbow. They can occur at other times, but are largely associated with the summer.

Rainbows are a beautiful sight. But, they are more than that: they are universally associated with promise and hope.

In the Bible, God created a bow in the sky as a promise with Noah and his people that He would never again destroy life on the Earth with a great flood. He put the rainbow in the clouds as a symbol of his covenant with the people (Genesis 9:13).

More recently, the rainbow has become associated with hope. It is famously characterized by the Irish as having a pot of gold at its mysterious, never-attainable end.

The rainbow also has become a symbol of hope and inclusiveness for recent African American causes and messages in the United States. In 1984, Jesse Jackson formed the Rainbow Coalition to improve civil rights. The 1975 the stage plays, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf," increased awareness about the struggles of black women in the United States.

Earlier Hollywood movies used the rainbow as a symbol of optimism. Judy Garland beautifully captured the image in "Over the Rainbow" from the "The Wizard of Oz." (The movie very artfully blended both black and white and color film footage, as well.) The 1968 movie, Finian's Rainbow starring Fred Astaire, reminded viewers to "look to the rainbow" for a better life. (The movie also made an early, but awkward, attempt to ridicule white prejudice in the south.)

So this summer, the next time a thunder or rainstorm passes and reveals a beautiful bow in the sky "" truly one of God's glories "" consider it in another way: a universal symbol of promise and hope.