Are You Color-Ful (or Color-Blind)?
Can you imagine a world with no color, or no variety? Can you imagine us all having the same favorite color and object – a yellow pencil? Yes, we’d all be nothing but boring yellow pencils… hehehe…(couldn’t resist)! One of the reasons my favorite season is Autumn is because of the various colors that become prominent and all mixed up together in showers of beauty! Wow! In part, our youngest daughter got her name because of my love for this particular season. As I sat at a stop light recently, I was literally mesmerized by the wonderful red and yellow leaves that fell like rain from a well-ordered row of trees directly across the street and thanked the Father, Son and Spirit, yet again, for sharing such complex and simple iridescence and coloration with us! Wowsa!
This is also one reason I appreciate relating with those in my denomination and local Church congregation. I appreciate and enjoy the rich variety of colors, cultures and accents that make up our genuine and regular relating together as brothers and sisters adopted into the Love and Life of God the Trinity – THE Relationship of all relationships, FILLED with unity AND DIVERSITY – the basis for various colors! 🙂
Can you imagine being literally colorblind in such a world of profound and colorific nature? Color blindness “the inability or decreased ability to see color, or perceive color differences, under normal lighting conditions”(Wikipedia). I sure can’t imagine being deficient in seeing life in color, not to mention the danger of it (how would you know to stop at a stop light if you are the first one to arrive at it? Yikes!) Actually, in a world filled with color it could be downright dangerous to your health!)
All these thoughts have crossed my mind lately as I have heard, for the umpteenth time, a person in my presence say “When I see you and everyone else in the room, I don’t see color!” What?! How is that possible when we are such a rich variety of people with different colors displayed in the blazing glory of God the Trinity in our present humanity?! Grrrrrrrrrrr…….makes me wanna scream…ahhhhhhh… hahaha… Okay, okay, I DO KNOW what the person saying this to me is trying to communicate, so I give them a break, but, to be honest, in trying to help me know they are more accepting of people of other colors and not as prejudiced as they perhaps once were, they sure sound, and give me the feel of, an awful prejudice…just saying….
In the Light of the Union and Diversity of the Father, Son and Spirit (the Son even now claiming Jewishness in His very real humanity Luke 23:38!), how can we any longer look around a room filled with diverse people and colors and TRULY proclaim to be color-blind? In Jesus we see our various colors and races dignified! The problem I am pointing out is kind of like taking Gal 3:28 out of context. It’s not that Paul is saying that we no longer see people for who they are as Jew, Gentile, Black, White, Brown, Male, Female, Child, Elder, etc. It’s that we actually see IN CHRIST all of those diverse children of the Lord as our brothers and sisters, in union with us and as equally loved, liked and included in His family! Yay! (Again, I can’t help but exclaiming joyfully at such a fantastically colorant Gospel!)
I am not making a huge complaint here because I AM THANKFUL that somehow in the far-reaching love of the God revealed in Jesus Christ, all of humanity and every human person is embraced and included in His Life and Love including every single person who struggles with the various prejudices of every type (Me and each one of you! hahaha) Prejudice is exposed as a true sin and relational problem because even those who are prejudiced against lighter skinned people seem to enjoy the white sands of a warm beach without complaint , and those who are prejudiced against darker-skinned folks still seem to love playing with black or red mulch in their flower beds. And, in fact, we exalt these colors in these moments and don’t say “I went to the beach and never saw any color! Yay” or “Look at my colorless flowerbed and mulch! Wheeeee!”…heehee…
If I am complaining (cuz honestly I have heard this kind of thing overmuch in my circles! Yikes!), it is a complaint to see more clearly that we can be so bold as to think/voice what we see in Jesus the Jew (and Good News!) Himself – that our skin color matters and is something to celebrate and speak about encouragingly! Prejudice makes people disappear and seem not to matter. Claiming to see no color can do the same thing – besides the other person IS your [insert color] brother or sister in Christ, even as you are theirs! Ha! 🙂
You have to use good discernment, and it may or may not be proper in certain social circumstances, annddd I KNOW the situation is COMPLICATED, but every once in a while feel free to express the glory of God in a diverse friendship/fellowship and say something Gospel and “simple” like “When I see you, and everyone else in the room, I see a noble and diverse member of God’s family and my brother or sister in Jesus, including the colorific, chromatic, colorful, luminescent, tinge, tinctures and skin pigmentations that make the skin complexions stand out and blend together in His unity and present glory so beautifully!” Hahahahahahahahahahaha…
“…he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” – Acts 25b-26 TNIV
THIS is one of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL things I have ever read…WOW!!! Bringing girly tears to my eyes for soooooo many reasons, cuz I too have been told the same. ” when I see you, I don’t see color” and yesssss…although I do appreciate the sentiments behind it, I WANT MY COLOR TO BE SEEN. MY DISTINCT SELF I WAS CREATED TO BE.
My FAVORITE time of year is Autumn too. I marvel at the myriad of colors that blanket the trees and ground…yet each leaf distinct in it’s own way…and as the FIRST SNOW of the season hits, each snow flake, same color but still distinct in design from all the rest…yet together, a BEAUTIFUL TRANQUIL PICTURE that exudes God’s AWESOME glory….just like we are. Solidifying more in me the immense love of FSS for each of us….as distinctive individuals. YEAHHHHH!!!
So yessssssss , “When I see YOU, PASTOR T, and everyone else in the room, I see a noble and diverse member of God’s family and my brother in Jesus, including the colorific, chromatic, colorful, luminescent, tinge, tinctures and skin pigmentations that make the skin complexions stand out and blend together in His unity and present glory so beautifully!” ….and yessss Pastor T, you are a little more COLORFUL than the rest…hahahahaha…a little more quirky….hahahahaha…loopy too…hehehe…but WOW!!!! HOW GLORIOUS IS THAT!!!..YOU ARE DISTINCTLY YOU!!!…..HOW AWESOME IS OUR FATHER’S LOVE!!!!!
HaHaHa…since you wrote “girly tears” I am going to presume this is Karen and not Joe of the Harris family? 🙂 Thanks for your encouragement and resonance! Continue to enjoy His varied colors and even being “human-suited up” in one of them as we keep growing in his grace and knowledge!
Every Blessing and Much love!
Hey Tim, you Gospel Preachin’ genius! What a great and loving way to express how we too often minimize the diversity of the Trinity’s creation when we “don’t see it”. like the old, “God is colorblind statement which is absolutely nuts!!! Of course God is not colorblind he made all the diverse colors of plants animals and people and when he finished he said, “It is very good.” I’m with you Timothy- a monochromatic world would be really boring. I like you and love you,
Bill
Thanks Bill! I agree: Color- “…very good.” Monochromatic – “boring.” especially considering the fact that the Relational God Who made us not only gave us these diverse colors, but eyes with which to see those colors AND an opportunity to “ooh and aah” over them! May you continue to see all of the many colors that come with fishing His various waters! 🙂 Much Love and Every Blessing!
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What a treat to be included on your blog as a “top” this week Mark! Thanks! 🙂 We celebrate His diversity and multi-culturism with you and I will now, personally, add your blog to my top list of those to pay attention to more in the future! 🙂 From Aberdeen? That area and the people who have studied and taught Christology there are among my greatest friends and influencers in helping me see the God Revealed in Christ WAAAAYYY more clearly! Much Peace and Every Blessing in Love to You brother!