Hi! Ho! Music's best blog here welcoming you to Tuesday and another groovy edition of Tuesday's Musical Notes! We've got a jam-packed blog ready to go for you today so let's dig right in with a little banjo, opening of the movie, type music. Plink a plink a plink a plink a plink...
Can you believe it? The Muppet Movie turned 40 last month. It is the retelling/reimagining of how the cast of The Muppet Show (first-run syndication, 1976-1981) met. The cast of characters who had previously only been seen on Sesame Street or The Muppet Show was now unleashed upon the world via the big screen. The lovable protagonists and their Muppet-only humor would bolster the movie to critical acclaim and box office success.
The soundtrack was equally popular. It showcased the songwriting skills of Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher who received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song ("Rainbow Connection") at the 52nd Academy Awards. (The song lost out to "It Goes Like it Goes" by Jennifer Warnes from the movie Norma Rae. Ummm, I don't recall ANYONE ever talking about THAT song 40 years later, much less devoting a whole blog to it! Hmmm...)
"Rainbow Connection" stayed in the top 40 for seven weeks, peaking at #25 on Billboard's Hot 100 in November of 1979. Since that time it has been covered by the likes of Kenny Loggins, Willie Nelson, Sarah McLachlin, Jason Mraz, Gwen Stefani, and many others.
The American Film Institute ranked it at #74 on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs list.
Rainbows are a source of awe, wonder, and romanticism. The inspiration of rainbows to the creative arts is undeniable as they seem to be infused in many pieces of literature, art, and of course music.
Why this fascination in the way the sun breaks light through the rain? "What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing and what do we think we might see?" What causes mankind to stop and stare whenever a rainbow presents itself on a rainy day? There my friend is the true rainbow connection.
Imagine that you and 7 family members (wife, 3 sons, and their wives) are the only remaining humans left on the planet. The gravity of the situation begins to weigh on you as you exit onto the dry ground and you realize that you and your family have been saved from cataclysmic destruction. The landscape all around you is unrecognizable and you wonder how far you may have traveled since first entering the boat 120 days earlier. Then you hear a voice calling your name. (And no you are not half asleep) It is the same voice that instructed you in the building of the boat no less than 55 (possibly as much as 75) years earlier. Reality kicks in and you succumb to the knowledge that what He said was all true. God has saved you and your family. You soon become aware that your sons are hearing God's voice as well as He speaks of a covenant relationship He will have with the remnants of mankind.
Then it happens. You see in the sky an image form that you've never seen before. It has blue, yellow, violet, indigo, green, orange, and red stripes. And God speaks:
"This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." ( Genesis 9:8-17 New American Standard Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel )
This is where the rainbow connection begins. God promises Noah and his descendants (that includes us, 1 race, the human race, everything else is melanin and culture) that He will never use water to destroy His creation again. The rainbow is the reminder of the covenant from God to man, a visible connection that we have from God in the form of this covenant promise.
That rainbow connection exists today each time we see light filtered through the rainclouds. Yes, there are scientific explanations of how light is bent by the water and blah, blah, blah, but how did that science come into existence?
Tuesday's Musical Notes confesses to the lack of skill in describing the science behind a rainbow and relies on the Biblical narrative as its foundation for understanding that God created the scientific arena by which rainbows are able to exist, as He spoke it into existence in His covenant-making with Noah.
Each time we see a rainbow it testifies to the promise that God made to mankind about the global apocalypse by water. But I think it also testifies to the promise that God made that He would save those in whom He found grace. Genesis 6:5-8 NASB/The Message/KJV
That message hasn't changed. For when we see a rainbow we are reminded that God will never destroy all of creation again with a global flood. But there are a few other things to which this rainbow connection should remind us.
1) God is patient. He gave Noah's world a 120-year deadline (Genesis 6:3 NASB/The Message/KJV)
2) Everyone is warned, but only a few will be saved (The Gospel of Jesus according to the Disciple Matthew, chapter 7, verse 14 NASB/The Message/KJV)
And finally,
3) A second and final destruction of the world as we know it is coming. The rainbow reminds us that while God is patient, He is not patient forever. It reminds us that Holy Spirit is calling ALL mankind to Himself, but only a few will accept Him as the Boss of their lives. It also reminds us that this world will be destroyed to make way for the new world that God has planned. (2 Peter 3:10 NASB/The Message/KJV, Revelation 21 NASB/The Message/KJV)
So dear friend, have you made the rainbow connection in your life?
"Have you been half asleep, have you heard voices?" I heard Him calling my name. "Is this the sweet sound that called the first sailor?" The voice really's One and the same. You've heard it too many times don't ignore it. It's something that you're supposed to be. God's shown it plainly, the rainbow connection, He's calling, go to Him, you'll see. "La da da dee da da doo, la da da da da dee da doo..."
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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