Rainbow in Heaven

Saint Peter was at his desk when I lined up to wait for my turn to be processed to enter Heaven. The lineup was long, but things moved along quite swiftly. At first, I was a bit leery of the people in the lineup. I kept my distance from the one in front of me – the reglementary 2 meters – and checked to make sure the one behind did the same. I didn’t want to catch COVID just as I was arriving at my destination. I certainly wanted to leave all of that stuff behind. I relaxed when I saw that everyone was diligently following sanitary prescriptions.

The crew at the Pearly Gates was very efficient and in no time at all, I was standing in front of Saint Peter. He welcomed me with a warm smile and said, “Glad you made it Gilles. I was expecting you.” He opened the big book on his desk and, with his finger, scrolled down the list of names on the pages reading out loud, “Caldwell, Campo, Cannon, Capello…” He finally found what he was looking for, “Côté… Gilles Côté. There you are.” I looked down and saw that my name was indeed there, properly punctuated with the correct accents in their proper places.

In the column to the right of my name were instructions I could not quite make out. Saint Peter read them silently, and when he had finished doing so, he pressed a button on his desk. As soon as he did, the Pearly Gates started moving at an incredible speed and when it stopped, I could see a beautiful door right in front of me. It was painted a wonderful shade of blue, the type of blue that always made me feel happy and peaceful inside whenever I saw it. Saint Peter pointed to the door and said, “That’s your door.” As I contemplated it, I knew I was in the right place. No other colour would have been suitable for the door giving access to Paradise.

As I started walking towards the blue door, I noticed that there were other doors lined up on either side of it as far as the eye could see in both directions. Some of the doors were also blue, but of a different hue than mine. Many were not blue at all. I could see yellows, browns, reds, purples, greens and even colours I did not recognize and could not name.

I turned to Peter with a puzzled look on my face. He knew what was on my mind and said, “Those other doors are for the other arrivals today.” “My goodness!” I replied, “I didn’t know so many people did not make it into Heaven!” I was convinced that a door of a different colour than mine, and certainly not the kaki door that was next to it, could give access to Heaven. All of those doors had to lead, I was certain of it, to less desirable places.

Again, Saint Peter read my mind and explained, “Every arrival expects the door to Heaven to be painted a certain colour. So we oblige them and have their door painted the colour they fantasize. Once they are inside, we bring them to the garden in the middle of Paradise and let them contemplate the rainbow that arches over it. Eventually, they come to understand that the Light is a communion of an infinity of colours.