Decoding the rainbow

Decoding the rainbow by Lillian B. Rose



The rainbow, that reminded me of God, caused people to call me gay and girls to hit on me. Bring me to the rain …… When people hurt me I used to let the falling rain soothe my wounded soul. Then in 8th grade my friends and part of my support system collapsed. I grew fearful of further pain. Yet it continued to rain… and the sun-catcher of God’s war-bow in the clouds with two bluebirds, hanging in my bedroom window, drew negative attention. The shades continued to be drawn to hide the rain pouring down my face because of their harassment and mislabeling. I was so exhausted. The pain swelled as my community of teens labeled me because I displayed a rainbow from a room with a drawn shade. It was insulting to have girls insist that I had any intention other then friendship and worse because people seemed to believe it. The lies grew stronger and since I didn’t think guys were as interested I muttered: If you must believe that I want to date girls then I am bi because I prefer guys.

My cousin-in-law had been as naïve about the hijacked symbol of peace and promise. As men honked at his car and a coworker stole a comb from his back pocket, he remained oblivious. When the married man realized that the people making a fuse were gay, he scrubbed and scrubbed until the decal just fell off his car. What did I do to the sun-catcher? I broke it in half and threw it away. We are not gay, we just happen to like rainbows – Damn It! Maybe we placed more emphasis on the theological symbol of Peace (after war) and promises.

Yet may I suggest another meaning: support for those who suffered losses. Families that have been challenged by divorce and death of a member use the rainbow to demonstrate difficult transitions. For these families and individuals could be homosexual, they are not always it. The symbol was meant to bring hope to those who had to mourn, heal, and deal with loss. May I recommend a new symbol: Hopefulness’ Lantern? This group is challenged to find light or hope in the new situation. And an implement of light isn’t misread as a symbol of the GLBTQ community. For the greater the rumors and gossip surrounding an individual, the greater the chance they will doubt themselves and question who they are themselves. People experiencing hard transitions already are dealing with losses, they don’t need another reason to feel pain.

So because the band of colors in our stormy skies came to reinforce many cultures and groups, war broke out between the colors. And God’s Promise grew fainter in people’s minds. Fewer people recognized the rainbow for it’s original meaning. God was saddened by the fact that the world was forgetting why He put the war-bow in the heavens (after a hard rain or ice storm).

He started to put his reminder near waterfalls and in fountains hoping His People would notice. But people who remembered were mislabeled for displaying His Symbol of Peace and Promise. God tried again. This time he put it in a spray of sea water, in the morning dew on the grass and vegetation, and around the moon.



“It’s a beautiful moon, but you’re wrong – that’s not a rainbow.” One teen said to his father.

Defeated the old man whispered back barely audible: “Someday you’ll see it too.”



The archangels Gabriel and Raphael encouraged Jesus- “Talk to the Father; tell Him not to grieve, we’ll get a message through.”

“The world seems to have forgotten My Father and anyone who forgets God forgets me.” Jesus reprimanded.

“But He Loves the world so much He let you die for it.” St. Raphael spoke wisely.

“Remind Him!” St. Gabriel conveyed.



So Easter Sunday came. The weatherman predicted a fog for much of the country. And that morning, God put an Alexander’s Band in the sky by reversing the colors along with a primary band of colors. But the world missed the rainbows, because the fog was so thick that it was like pea soup. It was also Passover time. Yet the journey to church and temple was harder that day. Some of the religious stayed home and prayed that the fog would lift.

The next day, it was misty as people went off to chapel to make up for missing Easter services. Outside a chapel, two of the Faithful saw the rainbows.

“Are there three and four of them in the sky?” The man with the prayer shawl asked.

“I counted three but I suppose there could be four.” The Lady with the Bible responded.

“Do you think your Church will mind if I pray here? My synagogue is across town.” He quarried.

“I know what it means!” The Christian shouted back.

“So do I! I, God, will not flood the earth again destroying all life. It’s a sign of Peace for Jews too.” The man retorted.

After a pause, the lady smiled, “Ok, come pray with me, but our Chapel is often more quiet than your synagogue.”

She opened the door to the chapel as the others praying looked up suspiciously.

“Come kneel next to me, Rabbi.” She said

He smiled nervously, “I am just a Hebrew not a Rabbi.”

Some of the others muttered under their breath as they started to pray.

“Same old battle” the man whispered to the Lady with the Bible.

As she opened the Bible, she turned to the Book of Hebrews for more information.



The week passed quietly as God listened. He was trying to determine how many people had seen His Efforts.



Then school started up again, a kindergartener got on the bus. The child looked out the bus window and exclaimed, “Rainbow!”

A supernumerary rainbow was in the sky and even though it was pastel, the children all tried to see it. “ Where, Where?”

“I don’t like pastels,” commented one of the twins. The other appeared to be thinking it over.

“Promise!” he shouted out, “God’s Promise.”



One of the teenagers went outside for lunch, and sat down on the bench by the flag pole.

“Wow, I have never seen a rainbow like that.”

She put down her sandwich to look at it more carefully at the fire rainbow.

A girl with a dog collar choker and a boy with a Goth tea-shirt sat down near the teen with the sandwich. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” the girl chirped nervously, gesturing to the sky.

“So the Magical creatures are at it again.” The boy said.

The teen, who spoke, munched on her sandwich a little disappointed.

The girl with the choker spoke up: “there are a ton of myths about that.”

As they ate, the conversation steered its way toward the Greeks, Chinese, Norse, and Irish mythology. A Hindu teen joined them. She mentioned “Indra, the god of lightening and thunder, the rainbow to us is called Indradhanush.” The whole area went silent.



A new arrival, in a cloud in the sky, was whispering to St. Ignatius and Little Flower, “They get it soon.”

His face looked thoughtfully. The saints nodded.



A Hebrew teen elbowed Angelica Smithton, “Isn’t it a promise, Angel?”

“Only to Us.” She whispered back.

I looked up to see Knox approaching us with a tray. A teen with a physics book shifted over to make room.

“It’s a refraction and reflection. Its position depends on us, the observers, and the position of the sun.”

“It’s still beautiful,” Knox said. “Think so Angel?”

I smiled back, “Funny Lester’s usually here by now.”

“I can get to the library for study hall 6th hour.” Rachel Givens responded.

“We can look it up in a dictionary and thesaurus.” I suggested.

“Ok but Knox and I have gym 6th hour,” replied the dark haired one.

“I like band better,” said the musician. “Maybe I can suggest the Rainbow Connection to Jazz Band.” The bell rang a couple minutes later.



Rachel and I met in the library. Without all the talk in the lunchroom, we wanted to look up the world rainbow as many times as we could. I wanted to prove that not only were we right, but some of the others were correct as well. I pulled five dictionaries.

“Don’t they all say the same thing,” She said pulling out R of the world book encyclopedia. We put the books down on the table with our stuff.

“Virtually,” I replied paging through them looking for the word rainbow.

Rachel looked up from the world book: “What are the usually ones? This is too long. Besides I think I know what a rainbow is.”

“Diversity, a visionary goal, an illusory hope, a fish, and a Promise of God. Here it is!” I responded.

“Maybe we should try the thesaurus.” She suggested as she grabbed one.

“I like this one- a castle in the air.” I said.

“ How about this one: A prism.” She bubbled phonetically into laughter. “Look at us. What would Kat say?”

“What would Lester say? Knox and a friend joined us for lunch.” I responded as I put the books away.