Dew Drops and Rainbows

“Campfires, dew drops, leaves, rainbows, Teddy bears.” These words came to me in an email as the Bible verse of the day last week from an internet list. Amused, I wrote back to say I was kind of wondering how I was going to write a devotion based on that "verse" which was actually the group’s bingo list. The sender said it would be a good trick and to let her know what I came up with. I’m always up for a good trick and thought since I had missed a few days, I should go for it.

While I realize these words were drawn at random from a large list, I think I see a common thread, though it might need a bit of a stretch, something I’m often doing so please loosen the elasticity of your brain and bear with me as I try to weave this thread.

Campfires, dew drops and leaves remind me of camping vacations from younger days. Pictures come to mind of lovely waterfalls, rock formations, hiking trails, squirrels, food hanging from a tree, and, of course, bears. Campfires are an essential part of a camping trip each day, not just for cooking and heating water, but for sitting around and singing before bed time and keeping warm.

Dew drops covered the leaves each morning and if it were dew accompanied by rain, there would be a rainbow, which might douse the campfire and get the Teddy bear wet because it had been left out by a mesmerized child. So what do we do with all these boring tidbits? Write a story? Not today! A nobler task waits.

I tried looking the words up in my Bible’s dictionary-concordance, which I’ve found is much too small, (the print, too). Drop was the only word that came close to being in there in the form of “dropsy,” which with another little stretch might elicit a few thoughts. It says, “puffiness or swelling of the body caused by a disease of the kidneys, liver or heart.”

OK, I know you are saying that’s silly, but since Pastor Jim admitted to being silly during his sermon Sunday, then I’m going to do it, too. Besides, he uses these silly moments quite skillfully and makes most of us laugh, which is good for the soul and perhaps the only time during the week that some people manage to crack a smile. Trust me on that one or get a bigger concordance than the one in this Bible and look it up yourself because this is off topic for me today. Laughter is healing!

Let’s go back to the camp. (I highly recommend Yosemite, it is gorgeous.) Don’t you love the sparkle of the dew drops on the leaves as the sun rises and paints an original watercolor each and every morning? A fresh, new canvas waits to be filled with every color of the rainbow. It’s a chance to start over and blot out the stuff on yesterday’s page that we weren’t pleased with. It’s a time to acknowledge that this artwork did not at any time, nor does it continue to be, nor will it ever be in the future painted every morning by an amoeba or some of its offspring. One needs to think about that for only a second and realize the absurdity of such a claim.

It is, however, an opportunity to recognize and praise God for His provision, to make Jesus our best friend and to cling to the Holy Spirit as our Comforter instead of to an admittedly cuddly Teddy bear. It’s a time to let the fire burn up the imaginary threads that we dream up that are not based on Biblical truths or that might cause our hearts to puff up in praise of ourselves for anything we think we have done without the materials or the intellect provided to us by the one true living God.

“Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” John 1:3 NIV

~Praisingly, Marcia Walthers, August 30, 2009, 4:45 p.m.