Digging Down to the Rainbow Tree

After the death of George Floyd, racial tension, righteous anger, civil unrest, and division have spread across our country.  For me, my 5-year-old neighbor, Amy, C.T. Fletcher, and Louis Armstrong remind me of how things are supposed to be.

Amy painted this picture several weeks ago and told her grandparents, “This is a rainbow tree.  If you touch the rainbow tree, you love everyone.  A long, long time ago, before you, Grammy and Granddad, when I was a baby, I dug down to the rainbow tree and touched it.  That’s why I love everyone.  I touched the blue.  That’s why I have blue eyes.”

Amy’s story reminds me of a book by Betty Eadie, entitled Embraced by the Light, which recounts her near-death experience.  In it, she talks about our existence as souls before we’re given earthly bodies and missions.  Maybe it was during that time when Amy dug down to the rainbow tree?  And maybe when I touched the blue, too?  Since my eyes are blue?  Thank you, Amy.  Your rainbow tree is my favorite.

C.T. Fletcher is a famous 60-year-old weightlifter, world record holder for bench press, actor, personal trainer, and so on.  His nickname is Superman and he looks like this…

Last year, at age 59, Mr. Fletcher required a heart transplant due to an inherited heart condition.  He learned after surgery that he was given a woman’s heart.  An “old woman’s” heart.  She was the same age he was.  Not only that, but it was too small.  When he questioned the doctors about why they did that to him, they simply replied that they wanted him to live.

Well, that “too small” heart grew into the right size in a week’s time.  Unsure of what’s normal, he considers it a miracle and credits God with that…

He says he has “no idea of the nationality or race of the donor of his heart”, but he has feelings and would really like to know if his feelings are right…He believes she is an Asian lady and says, “I feel like I can see this woman with her husband and kids.  It’s like I can look into her existence, her life.”

He notices he has lost his ability to hate and often talks to his “lady” friend and asks her for help.  “I talk to her a lot... “Come on lady, I need your help.”

So, Mr. C.T. Fletcher, “Superman from Compton with a lady’s heart”,  reminds us that even our hearts are interchangeable, and God can grow them into the right size.

As the Vietnam War wore on and race riots were spreading through our country in the late 1960’s, What a Wonderful World was released.  In response to the question, “What do you mean, what a wonderful world?”  Louis Armstrong said, “Seems to me, it ain’t the world that’s so bad, but what we’re doing to it, and all I’m saying is:  see what a wonderful world it would be, if only we’d give it a chance.  Love, baby – love.  That’s the secret.”

May God grant us the love and wisdom of a certain 5-year-old, an increase of faith, the perspective of C.T. Fletcher and anyone living with another’s heart, unwavering hope, and lots and lots of rainbow trees.  Amen.