Rainbows
are notoriously welcome crowd pleasers.Usually making an appearance right after a rain shower, they are always
a welcome and cheerful sight. They are also rare because a rain shower does not
guarantee a rainbow will follow, so each time one does appear, it strikes an
awesome wonder in us as it stretches and bows its colorful splendor across the
sky.
Irish mythology has it that there is a pot of gold located at the end of a rainbow with a cute and lively Leprechaun guarding it, and only dispensing the gold coins to the most deserving beneficiaries. Many of us as children grew up believing in this tall tale, and two very famous composers wrote a song “Over the Rainbow” in 1939 for the movie “The Wizard of Oz” (Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg) that promised bluebirds could fly so high over the rainbow, and by believing it was possible one human could also.
Irish mythology has it that there is a pot of gold located at the end of a rainbow with a cute and lively Leprechaun guarding it, and only dispensing the gold coins to the most deserving beneficiaries. Many of us as children grew up believing in this tall tale, and two very famous composers wrote a song “Over the Rainbow” in 1939 for the movie “The Wizard of Oz” (Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg) that promised bluebirds could fly so high over the rainbow, and by believing it was possible one human could also.
The real motivation here behind this lovely and timeless
song is that if we are willing to believe hard and long and faithfully in what
seems impossible, then we can indeed walk across the bridged gap between
reality and the stuff dreams are made of. The coming alive of the dream is the
pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
How many of us have stretched our imaginations and dreamed
our dreams and rode on the tailwinds of fantasies made entirely realistic by a
rainbow? After all the biblical explanation of a rainbow was that God made it
and put in the heavens after the flood that destroyed the earth as a sign and a
covenant promise from him that the world would never again be destroyed by
water (Genesis 9:13-17 KJV).
If we
want to make a connection between this and our dreams, we can know that through
faith and trust in God we can touch the intangible, see the invisible and
believe the impossible. Doesn’t this put a rainbow perspective on things?
My friend and fellow grandmother Claudette Richardson had so
many doubts and fears in her life before she looked to the rainbow. When she
first started talking about rainbows and how they fit into her life, I must
admit I was baffled. I didn’t understand where she was coming from with all of
this talk. She obviously was way ahead of me in her belief and value system and
what she considered spiritual. After she broke in down to me I was impressed
with her steadfastness and her stalwart devotion to the manifestation of
miracles and rainbows.
Even though she was physically present here with us, her
spirit had already soared “over the rainbow” into a place where she could live
in peace, joy and a comfort that can only be received by accepting something
supernatural. By supernatural I mean “not able to be done or achieved by man”
but only by the wonderfully free and marvelously liberating grace of God! For
by living under grace we can truly let go of selfish motives and get off of the
merry-go-round of trying to fix our lives and how we react to our
circumstances.
Claudette has been an inspiration to her friends and a
shining example of what a Christian woman should be. This sis something we all
need; a person we can look to as a port in a storm. God gives us these special
people in our lives…sometimes for just a season and at other times if we are so
blessed…for a lifetime. We will always have our faults and we always fall short
of the glory, but with an anchor cast upon a rainbow…we will never go too far
adrift in this sea we call LIFE.
