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Last summer from the car radio I heard Eva Cassidy sing an old classic from the Wizard of Oz: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. It’s not a song I was familiar with, nor one that I particularly liked. I couldn’t even remember where in the movie Judy Garland had sung it. But Eva Cassidy’s blues rendition of the song has changed all of that for me. With incredible voice and emotion, Cassidy succeeds in converting a sound track melody into a powerful, heart-felt description of our human situation. Suddenly I took notice of lyrics that had been written back in 1939 by E.Y. Harburg: Somewhere over the rainbow Way up high, There’s a land that I heard of Once in a lullaby. Somewhere over the rainbow Skies are blue, And the dreams that you dare to dream Really do come true. Someday I’ll wish upon a star And wake up where the clouds are far Behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That’s where you’ll find me. Somewhere over the rainbow Bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow. Why the, oh why can’t I? If happy little bluebirds fly Beyond the rainbow Why, oh why can’t I! |
The song works at a couple of
different levels for me. Certainly in this life, in the midst of our troubles and tragedies, we know that somewhere, way up high, over the rainbow, beyond the storm, skies are still blue. We’ve experienced enough of life to know that though things look bleak to us now, eventually “this too will pass” and things will get better for us. In fact, we’ve read stories of people actually surviving their problems in living, and then making the dreams they dared to dream really come true (see the film “The Rookie”). In this life, we’ve all experienced it to some
degree or other - somewhere over the rainbow, after the storm, beyond our troubles, skies are blue, and some dreams come true. So this is a song about God’s grace.
The song works at yet another level for me. We could think of that “somewhere over the rainbow” as being our life beyond death. Maybe the author didn’t have this in mind, but I can’t help but think of it every time I hear the song. Particularly that line about skies being blue “and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true”. I don’t mean to sound cynical, but my experience has been that a lot of dreams don’t come true for us, especially that really daring dreams, the really hopeful dreams that we dare to dream. They don’t always come true in this life, but there is the Christian hope that in the life to come, there will be true compassion and justice, that “up there” skies will be blue and dreams will come true. This is a song about God’s infinitive love and fairness. Grace and peace,
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