Thoughts: Making our own rainbows

Yesterday morning early my son and I went for short hike along the Appalachian Trail. It was a bright, clear morning. My son brought along a spray bottle of water, something I had bought him for a school project and as we hit spots of sunlight, he sprayed a fine mist into the air, and discovered it made a rainbow.

I snapped a few shots of him creating rainbows and afterwords, when we looked at the pictures, he said "You got my fake rainbow!"

"But it wasn't a fake rainbow" I told him. "It was real. You just didn't wait for the rain to create it. You created your own rainbow." Which brought on a conversation about how we make our own beauty in life. Just another one of life's teaching opportunities.

But it's very true, and such an important lesson for him, and all of us to learn. I know I have gone through periods when I thought my happiness depended on circumstances, or others, but that's not the case. We create our own sense of peace, happiness or sadness more often than not.

We're not alone in the creation of course. God is by our side, watching to see what we will make of the life he's given us, and will help us. In fact, it's my experience (and it was not an easy set of lessons to learn, trust me.) that if we bring him into our lives with love and worship, he's far more likely to help us create a joyful life for ourselves. If we don't he leaves us to struggle on our own.

If we create a joyful life, a rainbow of a life, it's not fake. It's just as real as one made by perfect circumstances. And a lot more predictable!

Tom