Rainbow Bridge | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Rainbow Bridge | Previous Challenge Entry
By Esther Phillips
08/06/08
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While I was growing up and going to school, we crossed over the Rainbow Bridge every day. It was a very narrow bridge. So narrow in fact that our school bus driver instructed us not to put our hands out the window for fear we might lose a hand, or worse. This bridge is one of the largest Marsh Arch Bridges in the United States and was built in 1923.

On my recent trip to Ft. Morgan, Colorado, which is about 80 miles East of Denver, I discovered that the old bridge is still there. They don’t use it for crossing over the South Platte River any more. Now they have a newer bridge built right beside it that serves as the highway bridge; nevertheless, the rainbow arches are still impressive. On top of that, it has earned its position on the National Register of Historic Places.

Much to my surprise while doing some research, I found that this Rainbow Bridge is not the only Rainbow Bridge in the United States. This other Rainbow Bridge is found around the four corners (the intersection of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico). It also differs from my school-age Rainbow Bridge because it is not man-made. This bridge is the result of a geological phenomenon that occurred thousands of years ago. Water was pushed up through the Sandstone to form a natural bridge and continues to make minor changes even today.

This Rainbow Bridge is now a National Monument and is the world’s largest known natural bridge. The neighboring American Indian tribes consider the bridge to be sacred. Tourists are cautioned to visit the bridge in a spirit that honors and respects this as a sacred religious site.

In the early days in these United States, covered wagons traveled West looking and hoping for a better life. They did not have the luxury of crossing rivers on a bridge. Instead they had to slither down into the water and cross through not knowing how deep it was and whether they would make it to the other side.

In our own lives, we have to cross through muddy waters when we face difficulties. We don’t know for sure that we will make it to the other side; and if we do, we don’t know what our lives will be like when we get there.

Is there someone that you know that is facing some difficult circumstances? Could you be a bridge by providing a solid place for them to stand while they are walking on a slippery slope? Can you provide a place of substance while they look for a new and better place in their life? All persons have the opportunity to model God when they see another person going through difficult circumstances.

Remembering these rainbow bridges might cause us to remember the rainbow and its promises. Lord Byron put it this way, “Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.”

The final and ultimate bridge is when we step from this earth into eternity. Christ has gone before and waits there for us. John 14:5-6 records, “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (NIV)

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