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Impossible Colors

Impossible Colors

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Even inside my home, I felt chilled as I looked outside the picture window to a gray sky drizzling rain. Such a disappointment. Temps the day before reached near 70 with sunny skies. The unseasonable warmth during a week in February spoiled us a bit. Turning off the heat, opening the windows and hearing the peeps and tweets from nearby birds tricked our minds into thinking it was spring.


February in northwestern Pennsylvania typically buries us under several feet of snow. Remembering that, I adjusted my attitude toward the rain, grateful I wasn’t shoveling snow.


As I helped my daughters with homework, I noticed a distinct bright green patch of grass in our backyard. Looking upward, I was thankful for sunshine peeking through clouds. Then I noticed something that created in me a sense of girlhood wonder. A double rainbow, clear and brilliant, spanned the sky. I called my children over, realizing why the rainbow seemed so unusually beautiful. In addition to the typical colors of “ROY G. BIV,” as I learned in grade school, several more colors expanded past the purple shades. I noted a brilliant pink, vivid yellow and a piercing aqua blue, plus more colors I couldn’t identify. I was staring at shades of colors previously I had never seen.


“The impossible colors!” my daughter yelled. “The colors from heaven!” We had been talking about heaven in recent weeks, since my nana passed away suddenly. We talked about the excitement of seeing her again one day, imagining the appearance of her new home. My nana raised me like a daughter so, for me, the heavy weight of grief eased as I visualized her walking on streets of gold under beautiful rainbows.


My middle daughter, Adelyne, is a young artist. Her favorite thing in the world is to blend colors in paint. She and I talked about the colors in heaven, colors we couldn’t even imagine. Colors we hadn’t seen on earth or that Adelyne hadn’t created with her paints. But here, before our eyes, were those unimagined hues in double rainbows.


Then I noticed one more remarkable thing. The second rainbow hung upside down. I had never seen anything like it. My girls and I stood there, speechless, watching the sky. And then, as quickly as the upside down rainbow came, it vanished.


“There’s so much more to me than you can even imagine.” I heard the whisper from God.


“Lord,” I prayed, “thank you for showing me that.” Other times in my life, God encouraged me with a rainbow. But this time felt different. This time, I felt God preparing my heart to seek Him in a new way. With a fresh heart, and a fresh view, I realized that God has so much in store for us. Even things we think are impossible.




Rachael Groll

Rachael Groll is a guest editor and author for Warner Press. She is also a Children's and Outreach Pastor at Living Waters Church in Meadville, Pa and is currently promoting her new book, Go: Beginning a Kids Outreach Ministry, available on WarnerPress.org. 

Rachael has shared some of her experiences on social media and her blog, shehears.org. Networking with children's pastors across the nation, she has helped others start Sidewalk Sunday schools and outreach ministries, and has recently begun a new role in public speaking.


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