Today was a rainbow day.  One of those days where the future looks good; the rain has gone and the promise has come, spreading joy across the sky.

Kate wanted to paint because her Uncle Nate and I were painting the kitchen, so I mixed her up some red, green, blue, and yellow paint (made with water and a little food coloring) and gave her a paint brush.  She painted away for quite awhile, and then very excitedly ran to the kitchen door to tell me to come look what she had painted.  It was a rainbow.  A rainbow that brought a promise of happy things for my little granddaughter: a sound mind, a curiosity that will lead her to a fulfilling career, an excitement for creating, a joy that comes from God.

Her next job was photographing various objects around the house.  She’s very careful with my good camera (although I do keep saying things, like, “Be careful with my camera.”)  She had me as a photography assistant as she was doing the photo shot of her Barbie bike.  My job was to follow orders and move the handle bars just so-so in order for her to get a good shot.

There were several close-up shots of the Barbie bike bell.  I am going to have to get a video camera in order to get her doing all this stuff.  It is just so funny.  She will take a picture, look at it on the camera, and say, “That was a good one.”

Nate and I could see the flash going off like crazy in the living room, just one after another.  I couldn’t imagine what she was photographing!  It was a big mess in there with everything from the kitchen in the living room.  Kate’s photo shoot was filled with things that caught her interest, things that she liked.  She would place them just the way she wanted them, and snap photos.  It turns out there was a whole series of my antique dishes in the chiffarobe my brother had altered into a glass-doored cabinet.

Kate loves jewels.  She can find them among the rocks at school.  And she finds them all over the place at my house.  Not real jewels, of course, but nevertheless, to her adventurous, imaginative little self those fake flowers, my oh-so-neat dishes and little tea spoons, her toys, my ink pens are all jewels to her.  And she is my jewel.

We yelled at her to come and take our picture.

There were other reasons this was a rainbow day.  Church was good; the dinner at church was delicious; getting my kitchen ready for the new flooring and appliances tomorrow was satisfying; and spending time with my son doing something constructive, with pleasant conversation, having a normal day was just rainbow.  I’ve been cheated out of those days; days that I will never get back and harbor resentment in my heart and soul that they are lost to me.  (That’s another story for another day.)

But on this rainbow day, I will rejoice in those everyday, humdrum things that people take for granted: spending a day with a child and/or grandchild, working, talking, laughing.