Somewhere Over the Rainbow

This week I was moved to tears by the audition of Linkin Bridge singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I loved their version, their passion, their honesty. And I've always loved this song. You can watch their full audition or just the song.

As a little girl I first heard it by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. Like this. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
has created his own beautiful version.

Listening to this song this week, I wondered why it attracts me so. Here are the words from the original version:

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow. Why then, oh, why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow why, oh, why can't I?

It's a song of longing. Dorothy longs for a real home, where she is not harassed and orphaned. She finds Oz, but in the end, discovers the land of her dreams is Kansas, with her aunt and uncle, not the fantasy land over the rainbow.

I resonate with this sentiment of searching for a real home. Partly that emanates from my earthly journey. Yet more deeply I think the seed of heaven yearns to break forth in us. We long for that real home that lasts eternally, where as CS Lewis described it in The Great Divorce, we are not yet solid enough to exist.

I suspect I will continue this longing all my life. But for now the time it feels the most quenched is when I am surrounded by my family. Like Dorothy, that creates home for me. That warm reality melts my troubles like lemon drops.