“The more destructive matter becomes, the more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears.” (Science and Health, 97). The number 7 being the number of completeness, Mrs. Eddy’s notes in her Apocalypse exegesis that matter’s destructiveness reaches its zenith in the 7 last plagues, and, at the very climax of its aggressiveness and presumption, it disappears; to be immediately replaced by reality, the descent of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, like an unexpected rainbow putting a splendid, decisive end to a seemingly relentless series of storms.
At this point, Mrs. Eddy writes: “Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sackcloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-winged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares.” (Science and Health, 574)
She repeats this sentiment here:
“When sunshine beautifies the shower,
As smiles through teardrops seen,
Ask of its June, the long-hushed heart,
What hath the record been?
And thou wilt find that harmonies,
In which the Soul hath part,
Ne’er perish young, like things of earth,
In records of the heart.”
—- “JUNE” (Miscellaneous Writings, 389-90. Poems, 56)
All of this also reminds me of what some spiritual thinkers have identified as the covenant of the rainbow; like all covenants, it is a 2-way street. In heaven, a rainbow forms when the sun’s rays pass through through raindrops, which disperse the light into the 7 colors of the spectrum. On earth a “rainbow” forms spiritually whenever you and I can sincerely, from the heart, offer “smiles through teardrops,” smiles of unconditional non-resistance in love and gratitude, allowing the radiance of Christ to shine through those tears.
O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain. . . .
No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;
No night drops down upon the troubled breast,
When heaven’s aftersmile earth’s tear-drops gain,
And mother finds her home and heav’nly rest.
—– “Mother’s Evening Prayer” (Poems, 4-5)