Print or Email

TheDiscipleMD

“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue”, so sang Judy Garland. I thought of that quote just the other day as my wife and I were driving around town and we spotted a giant rainbow in the sky. I noted later that some in my area even took pictures of its brilliance and posted it on Facebook. But I noted something else about that rainbow. It disappeared into dark clouds. Hence, my thoughts of Judy Garland’s famous song, “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” So what happens when our rainbows disappear into clouds making it impossible to see “blue skies”? How do we keep the vision of the “blue skies” promised on the other side of the rainbow in our hearts?

My wife and I have noted on a number of occasions, most often when we pull into a fast food place where large groups of teenagers hang out, how they seem to be laughing and smiling all the time. They seem to have no cares in the world, and most often they don’t. I recall once when I was a senior in high school one of my relatives said to me, “Enjoy life now, because it goes straight down hill from here.” I remember thinking, “Really! What a pessimist!” I couldn’t imagine anything but “blue skies” ahead for my life. Last year I met with an old high school friend. He seemed happy but had gone through a messy divorce, had a brush with cancer leaving him with some permanent symptoms, and lost both of his parents to age. As we sat and talked, my mind wandered back to our youth when he and I often double dated; he with my sister, and me with another girl. My sister suddenly lost her husband a few years ago at a relatively young age, while the girl I went out with has been stricken with a debilitating life long disease. I too have had my fair share of bumps and bruises along the way. The rainbow of our youth has seemed to have “disappeared into the clouds”. And frankly, if you don’t believe there are “blue skies” on the other side of the rainbow, it could be pretty depressing! But I believe in the promises of the Lord recorded in the scriptures. Referencing the rainbow, God said:

“This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you… for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud… and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature… And God said… This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh…” (Genesis 9:12-17)

Our Heavenly Father loves each one of us. He has set the “bow” in the sky as a reminder to us that he will not forget us, even if we forget Him. He has made an “everlasting” covenant with us that there are “blue skies” on the other side of the clouds. Life can be challenging and discouraging at times but only if our vision stops at the intersection of the bow and the cloud. Logically, we all know better, but sometimes our human emotions get the better of us. We fall prey to the adversary and allow thoughts of hopelessness and despair to enter our hearts and minds.

I like to remember another “Blue Skies” song. Written by Irving Berlin in 1926, it has been recorded and sung many times. I like the way Willie Nelson sings it. I guess because Willie can’t sing it any better than I can. “Skies are gray”, the song begins, but then the singer changes his outlook because, “good-luck came a knocking” and then “blue skies shining on me, nothing but blue skies” is all he sees.

Well, “good-luck came a knocking” for mankind through the birth, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. By having faith in Him who is the keeper of covenants, we can be assured that “blue skies” are what await the followers of Him who created us. I believe that when rainbows disappear into clouds, they do come out on the other side into blue skies. I hold tight to the covenants that the Lord has made with his children. I have hope that all the promises will come to those who are the faithful followers of the Savior. A rainbow should remind us of that, each time it gracefully arches across the skies.