Here we are, ready and waiting for the walk to begin.

If only I could crawl into the mind of an almost four year old…to hear and see how their growing brains are computing information…images…hearing conversations and lessons from parents, caregivers, etc. Oh to imagine the wonders I would behold were that possible. Alas, as fun as that adventure would be for me, any delight of my own discoveries relies on what my grandchildren have to say as they grow…mature…go on adventures through day trips…vacations…reading books….listening to stories.

Recently, my husband and I joined our son’s family–which consists of his beautiful wife and their two children, Jacks–age 3, almost 4–and Mylah, “Siss”, as she’s affectionately called, age 2, for the 2022 Step Out Diabetes Walk which was held at Detroit’s beautiful Belle Isle. Sunday morning greeted us with glorious blue skies adorned with puffy clouds, surrounded by full sunshine. Situated along the Detroit River not far from the Renaissance Center, we caught a cool breeze every once in a while, just enough to refresh us from the rays of the sun.

Our “walk” began at 10 am and at a pace which included our son pushing the kids in the stroller, we made the three miles in just over an hour. Cold drinks and sandwiches were ready for us to refuel and rest before our drive back home.

As we walked to our cars, lil Jack–who was holding onto his momma’s hand–looked up at her, confidently explaining to her that “we are going to have a rainbow”. I don’t remember exactly how she responded to him but again, he told her “we’re going to have a rainbow…they come out on Friday and Saturday”.  I asked him if he’d ever heard a story from the Bible that talked about rainbows. He hadn’t yet (I encouraged him to have momma or daddy read that story to him from his children’s Bible….

I chuckled at his matter of fact confidence that “we would have a rainbow”. This belief–coming from a mind that is growing faster than the speed of light in my humble opinion–reminded me of “why” we see rainbows. They appear in the eastern skies after a pretty big rainstorm, when the sun comes back from behind dark clouds and its prism of colors create an arched image of magnificent beauty…stretching from end to end…glistening high into the heavens. 

A quick internet search explains the phenomena of a rainbow: 

A rainbow only happens when the sunlight is coming from behind and is low in the sky. As the sunlight shines into a curtain of raindrops in the air in front of you, only one color from each droplet will refract at the exact angle necessary to directly reach your eye.

Greater than any scientific explanation for a rainbow is the reasoning found in scripture:

God created the rainbow as a reminder that he will never flood the whole earth again. But, the rainbow is also a symbol of God’s unbelievable love for us. He chose to rescue Noah from the flood, and he chose to rescue all of us from sin when he sent Jesus. Even when we really mess up, God’s love is still there.

I love how our grandson’s mind is thinking, reasoning, believing how things in God’s creation “operate”. Maybe he saw a rainbow on a Friday or a Saturday, and like everything else he’s experienced in his short time, he remembers it without any difficulty.

I also love that our grandchildren are learning about God from their parents who read to them….pray with them….take them to church….surround them with experiences connected to the beauty of nature.

I love that indeed, rainbows happen on Fridays and Saturdays according to Jacks, but I look forward to the days when he–and the other grandchildren–hear the story of Noah…the flood…the rainbow….God’s promise to never destroy us with water again…always displaying his love for us…not only on Fridays or Saturdays, either…but every day…every moment.