My sunset rainbow

Yes, I got that pesky manuscript in the mail to my editor this morning. Now I can have a life again. I think I'll celebrate by raiding the white and purple lilac bushes in my back yard and filling the house with fragrant blooms.

Last night as I was proofreading the final draft of my manuscript, Number Two Son made a breathless phone call from a couple of miles away and told me to run to the kitchen door and look outside. It was just before sunset, and there was a spectacular rainbow in the eastern sky. Since the back of our house faces east, the rainbow started on one side of our woodsy back yard, arched high over the trees, and ended on the other side of the yard. It was an amazing sight. Even the violet band, the one most difficult to see, was beautifully obvious.

I had never seen a complete, vibrant rainbow at sunset, but I wrote about one in the book I just finished. So try to imagine my joy when just as I was giving that manuscript its final read-through and was almost to the "rainbow" scene at the end of the story, my kid called and we shared a sunset rainbow over the phone. Yes, I had the presence of mind to grab my digital camera, but got off only one almost-good shot. That photo is now sitting on my desk, and if it doesn't have much in the way of artistic merit, it will always hold enormous sentimental value for me. I'm very pleased with the way this book turned out, and after all the hard work I've put into it, I couldn't help but see that perfect rainbow as an affirmation from God.

Yes, I thought about posting the photo here. But I didn't think it would translate well to your computer sceen and I'd rather you imagine something magnificent (as it truly was) than see a dim photo and wonder what was so remarkable about it. You just had to be here, that's all.

And I'm so glad I was.