Starting point

There is an open space behind my mom's assisted living facility in Covington, La. She has not been well, so I went home recently to visit.

The nurse came in to change her so I walked outside. There is a new building under construction not far away but the space offers a generous view of the surrounding woods and the sky. The sky was a mellow yellow color, and arched way above me was not one, but two, rainbows. I had never seen double rainbows before.

I went back inside and Irma, one of my mom's caregivers, was at her desk and I told her to come outside and look. Irma is a sweet person and delights in helping those who really need it. She came outside and when she looked up, she smiled broadly and said it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. "I have never seen two like that," she said, and then, "Isn't God glorious!" Her beeper rang and she said left to help someone. She thanked me for sharing.

Irma is wonderful. And so are Patricia and Carol, Starlett and Amy, George and Hillary, Winnie and Geralyn, and all the others who find such joy in caring for those who need it. Yes, rainbows are beautiful, doubly so when twins are formed. They are high, and I have heard that they recede if you try to chase them. Can you touch a rainbow? I do not know. Perhaps such beauty is not meant to be touched. Other forms of beauty, however, do touch and in my mom's case, I know that Irma and the others who care for her touch her with love.

Loving people are close and beautiful. They come in all arrangements, all sizes, of all faiths. They let us draw close and in their generosity give something of the beauty that is God.

I do not think that anyone has ever found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Maybe God emptied it a long time ago and poured its contents into people like Irma.

[Fr. James Stephen Behrens is a monk at Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, Ga.]

COPYRIGHT 2007 National Catholic Reporter
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