A sky mottled with blue peeking through dark clouds drew my eyes upward as I left the grocery store. Then I noticed faint colors emerging on both sides of my visual horizon above the trees. My uplifted face caught a few raindrops as I walked across the parking lot toward my car oblivious to anything but the sky. I stopped in the cross lines next to the handicapped parking unable or unwilling to move from the vision before me.

Colors continued to emerge in the sky as I stood there mouth gaping open. A little boy yelled, “Daddy look!” His daddy smiled and said, “Wow!” Then I began to smile as did everyone else in the parking lot. Time seemed to slow down, people can’t rush when they’re looking up.

“Look at that”, “Isn’t it beautiful?”;  every person had a comment and I became aware of a distinctly different atmosphere in the parking lot. But I still could not move or take my eyes off the sky because the rainbow kept transforming, becoming brighter and bolder and more perfect every second. It completely arced the sky and then a faint double appeared.

Everyone who saw the rainbow was transformed.

A man parked his car in front of me and as he got out I pointed up and said, “Did you see it? It’s perfect!” He looked up and replied, “Yes, it is amazing isn’t it?”. Finally I headed toward my car eyes still on the sky, voices all around still professing the wonder of color against the clouds. Even the boy collecting shopping carts smiled and chatted about this shared vision.

We shared a moment in time that created happiness and hope in every heart. As I drove away I felt more amazed by the experience of human transformation than of seeing the perfect rainbow. 25 or 30 random people going in and out of a store had a common emotionally uplifting experience that changed their day and filled a parking lot full of love and joy. I thought to myself, this is what life is meant to be like.

Human beings, regardless of age, race, sex, religion, political viewpoints or whatever: we find joy in the same things. We experience the beauty of God’s creation whether we believe in God or not. Our hearts can be melted by a child or encouraged by a rainbow regardless of our social status or difficulties in life. We just have to be open to the experience, or maybe sometimes we need to be caught off guard.

What makes us happy?

I started a series of posts some time back called “The Creating Happiness Principle”. These posts are based on my understanding of the Divine Principle, which from my viewpoint explains the purpose behind life, the motivating factors that persist in humanity, and the divine design in all things. This rainbow experience is evidence to me that all things were created for human joy by a creator who is love, and who delights in our happiness.

You could scientifically explain to me what causes a rainbow but that would not make me smile the way seeing it emerge in the sky did. I doubt that your explanation would also cause an overwhelming sense of awe and joy amongst a group of preoccupied random strangers. Although in a classroom, such an explanation might excite a group of young learners for a few minutes, but this still would not rival the joyous atmosphere I experienced in the parking lot.

The Ripple Effect

Joy, like laughter, is contagious.  It’s meant to be shared and it’s meant to spread. The nature of the universe is that everything exists in relationship, meaning that everything exists for the sake of something else, nothing exists in isolation for it’s own sake.

Every moment of our lives we are involved in a multitude of relationships, giving and receiving on many levels at the same time. Every relationship creates something, in other words there is a result, and very often that result creates a ripple effect of many other results. The ripple effect that is inherent in the process of life is meant to multiply goodness and joy. The Bible and many other sacred texts tell us that in the beginning, at the origin of human life, it was all good.

Sharing the Results

Does the rainbow view it’s own colors and feel excited about itself? Even if it does, it can not experience itself from the viewpoint of a small human looking up to the sky. Yet we humans can view a rainbow or a sunset and share the view and the joy with one another. It evokes similar emotional responses from every human and so we have a common experience of it.

If we look at life from this viewpoint we can have greater empathy for one another, we are not so different after all. We can also have a greater appreciation for the unity of all life; the creation exists for our shared happiness and we exist to appreciate it. If we take that thought even one step further we can say that all that exists in the universe is a manifestation of love and we exist to reciprocate that love. To give and receive and to multiply love.