A Place Without Trouble

The little farmgirl in the blue gingham dress had troubles swirling around her like the dust so easily kicked up on the roads near her Kansas home. They weren’t troubles much different than anyone else’s: a mean old neighbor, a mischievous little dog, and a busy farm that needed all of her aunt and uncle’s attention. She couldn’t have known that a twister would soon swoop down and change her whole life!

The Wizard of Oz had its debut in 1939 and included the now famous song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in its opening lines, as Dorothy is told by her aunt to go someplace where she won’t get into any trouble. Young Dorothy asks her constant companion, the little troublemaker called Toto, if there is such a place; “It’s not a place you can get to by a boat, or a train. It’s far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain,” she tells her pet.

There really is a place, Dorothy…Troubles often come in like a whirlwind, pick us up, and toss us about. But one thing that remains fixed and stable is God’s steadfast Hand. This is the place of stability, the calm in the storm you face. And God has ways of reminding us of this truth. Consider the beauty of a rainbow:

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:13

In this first book of the Bible, God is making a promise never again to send a destructive flood to cover the whole earth. He has kept His promise. But His rainbow means more. For some, it means a promise, for others, that everything will be alright, and for yet another, it means that God sees them.

There is a place without troubles: no tears, no fear, no sickness, just perfect love and perfect peace.  But we can’t experience that place in this life, it is prepared and waiting for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Somewhere, over the rainbow, there is a place! Until then, there is God’s reminder in the rainbow.