WHERE IS THE POT OF GOLD?
by Erwin Bourne

Where did that legend come from?  Since my earliest
childhood, I thought about the pot of gold every time
I saw a rainbow in the heaven.  I tried to imagine
where the end of the rainbow could be.  Far across the
city in which I grew up during my school days?  In my
rural experiences, the rainbow disappeared over the
next range of hills.  And the most beautiful rainbow
seen in my lifetime disappeared beyond the mighty
river Amazon.  One end disappeared downriver in
Brazil, and the other end vanished upriver in the
country of Peru. Jean and I were sitting on our
veranda in Leticia, Colombia.

Most likely, there is no vanishing point for the
rainbow.  One time flying over the Alaska wilderness
in a commercial passenger jetliner, I gazed earthward
at a rainbow which formed a perfect circle—360
degrees.  It had no ends, and consequently, there
could not be a pot of gold.   

It was exactly 5:30 A.M. on May 6, 2002 when a
marvelous phenomena held our attention for some
fifteen minutes.  We sat on the riverfront veranda
looking west as we drank our early morning coffee and
talked over the mission needs and problems we were
likely to face on this day.  For weeks, each morning,
we had been praying about great needs for the mission
work.  This early morning, a huge rampart of white
cloud kept rising from the west horizon.  This was
enough to hold our attention.  The sun hadn’t dawned
yet on the eastern horizon as seen from the
street-front of the Casa Grande.

Suddenly a complete 180-degree rainbow appeared above
the huge white cloud.  I never recall seeing a rainbow
before the sun had risen.  This out-standing
“arco-irís” as we call it in Spanish, displayed its
seven colors of the spectrum in splendid fashion.
Then a second rainbow, though somewhat lighter,
appeared above the first arc.  We sat spellbound!

We weren’t much concerned about the ends of the
rainbow disappearing far off into the rain forest.  Or
about the pot (or two pots) of gold hidden out in the
jungle.  Jean and I were thinking about this heavenly
demonstration of God’s promise—more precious than
gold.  God keeps His word.  His promise remains true.
He will never fail us!  We have gone out as
missionaries to the ends of the earth and He will
never forsake us!   The bow of promise we saw that
morning was God’s special assurance to our hearts.
Jean believed that God placed the rainbow there just
for us!
 
Yours for OUTREACH AMAZON,
Erwin and Jean Bourne