So once when I was driving south on I-15 CRYING LIKE A BABY because I was stressing about one of our boys (gah! they don't tell you that you never stop being a parent when they first put those cute little babies in your arms!) I noticed a big old fat rainbow looming over the mountains to the east.
And suddenly I remembered the old Noah story about how the rainbow was God's promise to Noah that he (Noah) would never have to float around the world with a bunch of smelly animals in a boat again.
Okay. Whether you believe the Noah story is literally true or not isn't the point. The point is that the rainbow is a symbol of hope--hope in the future, hope that goodness will prevail, hope that you won't have to share your bedroom with camels. And when I saw that big old fat rainbow looming over the mountains to the east, this thought flashed through my head: Hey. Why don't you try a little hope for a change?
Which reminds me of a letter written at Christmas time to a friend by a 16th-century Catholic father named Fra Giovanni:
I salute you! There is nothing I can give you which you have not; but there is much, that, while I cannot give, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take Heaven. No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take peace. The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet our reach, is joy. Take joy.
Take joy. Take hope.
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2 comments:
Ooh, I love reminders from heaven like that. I live my life off hope. It’s the thing with feathers, right? It perches in the soul, and never stops at all.
Yes! And I love your voice. I could have written that on the last four posts but I'm writing here instead.
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