Recently I spoke at an event at the retirement village where my mother lives. I introduced the story found in my book Less Than a Widow and read a few pages. The disaster that fell on three women in the book–they suddenly and unexpectedly became widows–hit home to many in the audience who had experienced the same pain and emptiness at the death of a spouse. I ended the talk by reading a few pages that told of the reactions and decision facing these women.

My husband, sister, and I spent the next hour deep in conversation with attendees. One women left and returned, shyly handing me a poem.

“I wrote this a while back,” Reatha Blackeby said. “I was sad and lonely when I came back to my room, but when I looked out of my window I saw a beautiful rainbow filling the sky. I sat down, and this poem just poured out.”

It touched my heart, so I share it with you–may you always be able to see God’s rainbows.

Because of Rainbows   by Reatha Blackeby

Because of rainbows, I believe in God;

Because of daisies with faces upturned to the sky;

Because of puddles and things, and arms to outfling;

and puppies waiting in windows to buy.

Because of doughnuts on the table

and mothers’ faces covered with love;

Because of sunlight dancing on the altar

lighting the face of the Christ Child above;

Because of firelight in the evening

and fathers’ eyes all shining and bright;

Because of chocolate and bedtime stories

and God watching over us each night;

Because of bridges with streams running under

for leaning over and dropping things in;

Because of dying and such,

loving and touch,

and life starting over again.

Because of hillsides dressed in flowers

and farmers turning the sod;

Because of lightning and thunder and showers;

Because of rainbows, I believe in God.

Because of rainbows, I DO BELIEVE in God.