Rainbows and Silver Lining

Several years ago, our family decided to take a vacation to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park (with a stop off in Canonville, Utah just for fun). We wanted to have a rugged and bonding experience, so we rented a motorhome and drove the trip. I think it was one of the best weeks we've had together. I don't think any of us will forget passing around cheese and crackers and summer sausage in the car, picnicking in an open field in the middle of nowhere with our baseball equipment handy, or especially, the rate at which our hearts were pumping as two year-old Buzz went racing down a trail on the other side of the wooden fence at the top of the Grand Canyon (I think just remembering it raises my blood pressure!...) 

Those are some fantastic (and frightening!) memories. But mostly, I remember long talks in that motorhome as we drove. The weather was so beautiful, with a clear blue sky and scattered showers. When we arrived at Bryce Canyon, we were awed and inspired by the beauty of its creation. It was surreal. The pottery coral colors glowed against the cornflower blue sky, as did the still wet blacktop road and glossy greenery surrounding the viewpoint washed clean from the recent rainfall. But the most breathtaking vision was the rainbow beginning at one of the peaks in the rocks and disappearing into the sky. It reminded us of the rainbow given so long ago, as a promise to the good-hearted Noah, and of the promises we had made to each other, and to our Father in Heaven. 

As we drove along that stretch of road we encountered occasional clouds, some light and fluffy, some dark and grey. The white ones hung in the sky, fluffy cotton balls inviting us to rest our weary heads upon them, but playfully staying high in the sky out of our reach. Then there were the dark ones. When they moved across they dominated everything, grabbing the light with a sort of natural osmosis and laying like a wet blanket over our once happy sky. Our mood fell and smiles melted. But as we gazed out the windows wishing for the light to return, we noticed something. Each dark cloud was illuminated from behind by a streak of light, even brighter than anything we had seen before. The silver lining. We reflected upon the silver linings in our own lives, and how when our dark clouds come and threaten to smother our happiness, that silver lining is ever-present, and ready to shine through the darkness, and it does when we allow ourselves to see it there behind the clouds. 

Today is a cloudy day. I am smiling because as I picked up my children at various times, two of them pointed upwards, and gazing up at the sky, proclaimed that our sky is full of silver lining, and that makes our sky particularly beautiful today.