Somewhere, Over The Rainbow…

Whether you’ve committed them to memory or not, I suspect everyone reading this has heard these words:

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.[i]

Famous words from a famous song, so why did they pop in my head as I laid down to sleep last night?  I suspect it’s because each night we commit ourselves to God, giving thanks for today and asking for strength for tomorrow.  And realizing without dwelling on it, that each day may be our last here.  After all, who knows?  Haven’t you lost someone too soon?  As a child, I learned the “Now I lay me down to sleep…” prayer.  Talk about frightening!  Kids trying to sleep after praying “…if I should die before I wake…”  What were our parents thinking!!

For some reason, I had never associated the song lyrics above with anything other than Kansas, tornadoes, and flying monkeys!  But there is a land of promise in those lyrics – one where dreams come true.  What kind of dreams?  How about no more sickness or hate.  No tears or pain.  Peace.  Love.  Joy.  And no, I’m not talking about the 60s or the Age of Aquarius!  I’m talking about the perfect peace, love, and joy found only in the presence of the Savior who bought your way into heaven.  There are rainbows there, too:

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face shone like the sun, and his feet were like pillars of fire…Then the angel…raised his right hand toward heaven.  He swore an oath in the name of the One who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them….  Revelation 10:1,5-6

Somewhere, over the rainbow and beyond the clouds, past the planets and the stars, is a land that I’ve heard of.  NOT a place where “troubles melt like lemon drops”, but a place like this:

(GOD) will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.  And the One sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then He said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”   Revelation 21:4-5

Trustworthy and true.  I like that a lot.  No pie-in-the-sky dreams; no I-hope-so wishes; no waiting to see what’s over the rainbow – we already know.  That’s why our Savior is amazing.  When we come to faith, God could give us ruby slippers instead of the Holy Spirit.  But He knows we’d click our heels and be gone!  Instead, we have work to do here while we remain.  I know “there’s no place like home”, but it can wait.  “Someday I'll wish upon a star, and wake up where the clouds are far behind me.”  But not today.

Jacob

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[i] Take four minutes and fifty seconds and listen to the great Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole sing my favorite version of the song.  He died too young at age 38 – maybe someday we’ll hear him sing it in person, somewhere over the rainbow….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fahr069-fzE