There's So Much We Can't Explain

Photo by Rita Bourland © 2012

There’s So Much We Can’t Explain

I was touched by a moment of grace today.  It came at an unexpected time as these things often do.  I was returning home after attending the funeral of a five month old baby.  It was tragically sad.  The pain of the parents, the pain of the grandparents and other family members was deep and raw.  I drove home with a heavy heart thinking of the dear young couple who suffered this profound loss.

There’s so much we can’t explain.

The weather was beautiful.  As I neared my neighborhood, I glanced up at the sky and saw something I will always remember.  The endless blue sky was broken by a few wispy clouds; clouds that seemed to be the work of a master painter.  But then something caught my eye.  There was one cloud formation that was brilliantly colored.  The wisps were streaked with red, blue, purple and green.  I looked for a rainbow.  There was none.  I looked at the other clouds.  They were all perfectly white.  I looked back at the colorful cloud.   It was shaped like some magical bird or angel with colors so stunning that I pulled to the side of the road to gaze without interruption.  

I decided to rush home, grab my camera and try to capture the image.  By the time I got the camera and headed back outside, the cloud was gone. 

A fleeting moment of grace, an angel painted in the sky, a baby’s death.

There’s so much we can’t explain.