Life is full of color. But can you imagine a world without color?
One of things I love about nature are all the colors: reds, greens, oranges, browns, golds, purples and more. The world is full of color and beauty and yet, there are people who cannot see the color; they do not see color at all. It is a form of color blindness where the world is black, white and every shade of grey. It is called Achromatopsia (a-chroma-top-sia). There is no treatment … no answer to the drab, colorless world that many are condemned to live in. How they see the world impacts everything they do. If you cannot see color, you cannot distinguish hot glowing embers from cold white ash. You cannot tell the difference between a red flashing light telling you to stop or a green light saying go. Color tells you a great deal about the dangers that are present. We all live in a world that is colored by our sin, brokenness, experiences, desires, needs and world view. We might see the world as compassionate, kind, and generous or we might see the world as scary, evil, and dark … both are true, depending on your vision. When sin came into the world, it turned a world of color into a world of grey. We lost our ability to see as God sees, to discern what is good and right versus what is bad and evil. It took what God made … and distorted it. It is a world of darkness.
Then Jesus, Emmanuel, enters the world as the light, the One who gives us the ability to see life in living color again. I want to see the world in all its beauty and boldness, in living color, what about you? There is something living life with God that allows us to see what God sees and to see the beauty in life.
THIS WEEK: Take some time in preparing for the New Year to make a list of the most colorful things you see and enjoy. Thank God for the ability to see beauty and color. Ask him to help you see the world as He sees it.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Psalm 96:6
-Pastor Jerry