Vonda’s Views
June 28, 2010


"Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions but only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide" Kermit the Frog singing in the swamp.

Last week was very stressful week and I was having to make some tough decisions. As I usually do during times like that, I was praying that I was making the right moves and I asked the Lord to show me a sign that I was moving in the right direction. Wednesday evening I got the first one. A brilliant rainbow popped out in the eastern sky. I was just mesmerized by it. But I did not think too much about it after all, it was just a rainbow after an afternoon thunderstorm.

Some times it takes a slap upside the head to get my attention. The next day, Thursday, was a long day for me. It was crammed full of back to back things that I had to get finished and as I was heading home from Water Valley I had just turned south on to 9W at Paris when I saw it in the distance. Another beautiful rainbow. Then I noticed it was exactly the same time as the one I had seen on Wednesday. I felt a little tingle on my neck.

I stopped to take a photo of the pretty half bow and then went on my way. A few miles down the road, that one had faded and then I saw another one appear and it was a double. I pulled over and took a photo of that one which was to the south west of the highway. As I stood admiring it, I glanced to the east side of the highway and in the distance I could see another one forming.

I am not an expert on rainbows but I was starting to realize that seeing this many rainbows in a space of 10 miles and 15 minutes times was not a normal thing.

As I drove on home admiring the beautiful rainbows the closer I got to them the brighter they became. Then I passed them by and could not see them unless I turned and as I came into the city limits the sun produced another magnificent rainbow in the southeast. It was the largest arc I had seen. As I snapped it photo I thought about it being number 5 for the day!

I came home and excitedly downloaded the photos on to my computer so I could look at them. I was amazed at the idea of seeing 5 rainbows in one afternoon and 6 in a 24 hour span. Saturday evening added another vision and more photos to my rainbow collection. That time my husband and daughter were with me and they say it also. We saw another double bow and this time we could see the complete bow in the evening sky.

Many cultures in the world believed that rainbows led to God. Some tribes of North American Indians called the rainbow a "Pathway of Souls." In Japan, a rainbow is the "Floating Bridge of Heaven." In Hawaii and Polynesia, the rainbow is the "path to the upperworld." People in the Austrian Alps say righteous souls go to heaven via the rainbow.

Throughout history, rainbows have been considered either very good luck or very bad luck. It is bad luck if a rainbow's end rest on water and it is good luck if the ends of the rainbow rest on land. Similarly, a rainbow that appears the day a child is born is considered good luck. Some people believed that looking at the base of a rainbow would bring death. Others believed that pointing at the highest point of a rainbow would bring bad luck (anything from being struck by lightning to losing a finger).

Interestingly enough, although rainbows are scientifically explainable optical phenomena that occur when white light is refracted into its spectrum of colors, an illusion, the dictionary still defines rainbows as Noah did: a symbol of hope.

And that is what I believe the 8 rainbows that I saw last week were; Symbols of hope that I have made the right decision. Now I look forward to the next rain to see if I can add any more rainbow visions to my collection and maybe just maybe I can figure out what the rainbow connection is that the Lord wants me find. Sing it Kermmie.

"So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me."