A Polka Dot Rainbow

I missed midnight last night. I tried, but the lingering nausea of my flu did me in, and I had to crawl to bed long before the Waterford Crystal ball was doing its dance in Times Square. But in the morning, while the rest of the sleep deprived world snored, I crept out and peeked in my daughter's room. She sleeps in a bunkbed, which impedes the ease of my seeing her cherubic face. However, I wanted one of the first beautiful things I gazed upon on this morning of a new year to be her. As I peered in her quiet room at the peaceful tangle of sheets, I saw her giant multicolored polka dotted bean bag chair on the bed, obscuring her face from my vision.

It occured to me, as I sat down to my Bible study and coffee that that was a little strange. Why had she lugged her giant bean bag chair up onto her bunk bed? She only had about 6 inches clearance to the ceiling so it was certainly not there to sit on. I was sure that when midnight struck, Arvo would have sent her right to bed. We were not even sure that in her sickness she should be staying up til midnight, but she was so anxious to do so that we acquiesced. So why, at midnight, had she dragged that polka dotted monstrosity up to sleep with her?

Seeking God is like a treasure hunt. Each day, He puts clues before me, and my goal is to find the most sacred message I can from the most mundane symbol. I saw in the polka dotted bean bag chair, hoisted to its perch, the perfect opportunity to wring a drop of holiness from a dry and weary rag.

Oftentimes, the Bible itself will grant me elucidation. However, that simple path was denied. "Polka dot" is not in the Bible. Neither is bean bag chair, though of course, beans are mentioned. None of the references to beans seemed to have the right joyful connotation to ring in a New Year, however. While searching for the Hebrew or Greek root of polka-dot, a song kept going through my head. I had awoken with that song in my head, and it had sprung out of nowhere. It is an old song, written the year after I was born, and I remember singing it growing up, always sobbing as I reached the last few selfless lines.
"I wish you bluebirds in the spring, to give your heart, a song to sing.....and then a kiss, but more than this, I wish you love.......
My aching heart and I agree, that you and I could never be, so with my best, my very best, I set you free.
I wish you shelter from the storm, a cozy fire to keep you warm, but most of all when snowflakes fall,
I wish you love."

Why God are you sending me a vision of a polka dot chair in the sky, and a song about setting someone free in love? I knew there was a connection...connecting the dots.... connecting the polka dots.........
When I had awoken that morning, the line about setting free played over and over in my head. I had thought it was that I was to stop worrying about my adult children, that I was to set them free to a life that would entail suffering, that I could not keep trying to protect them. But the beauty of the polka dot bean bag chair kept bumping up against that message. It was a rainbow of color in the sky.....and my child nestled by it, peacefully sleeping. And then I knew what God was telling me. I was set free. We are all set free.
"Whenever the rainbow appears in the sky, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures...." Genesis 9:16
"For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance- now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. " Hebrews 9:15
There it was! The link! New Year's Day, the leap from the old to the new. The old Covenant, symbolized by a rainbow of color( a polka dot bean bag chair in the sky), the system of obedience and sacrifice which we could never do perfectly yet with a promise that we would not be destroyed, to the New Covenant sealed with the final sacrifice of Jesus, which was perfect and set us free forever from the penalty of sin. The old Covenant was the promise, and the New Covenant was the fulfillment.

I am not certain Asherel was thinking about all of that as she hoisted the polka dot bean bag chair up into her bed. I am sure she will tell us some logical reason for doing so when she awakes, but I am going to keep picturing a polka dot rainbow in the sky and being set free by the love of a God with a wonderful sense of humor.