A world of colour

It’s not a good start to the day waking up to the latest news headlines. Sarah’s blog last week echoes my own experience - you’re either checking your phone compulsively or trying to avoid it. Even beyond the current situation in Israel and Gaza and in Ukraine, very little news is good - political failings, economic uncertainties, soaring crime rates, terrorist attacks, prison overcrowding, climate change and so on. The root of these bad news stories is ultimately us - man, human beings, homo sapiens (a somewhat ironic term given sapiens means wise!). Even many so-called natural disasters like flooding, landslides and wildfires are ultimately caused by something man did or didn’t do. We seem incapable of getting things right.
 
As a bit of light relief and encouragement, I wanted to reflect briefly in this week’s blogs on a couple of things us humans have had no hand in making, nor destroying, and that remain as “very good” now as the day the earth was created.
 
My first thought is about colour. We live in the most extraordinarily colourful world and everywhere we look there is colour. A friend of mine just came back from visiting Canada and witnessing their “Fall” (no not another Genesis reference but their word for Autumn), a two-week period when the leaves change and before the trees shed. She brought this spectacle to life saying, “it was literally impossible to take a bad photo.” Year after year there’s a similar two weeks of stunning golds, oranges, reds and yellows, no matter what.
 
Every colour under the sun is represented naturally in God’s creation. From the blackest black of onyx and panthers to the whitest white of snow and albino bunnies; and every nuance of colour in between as it in appears in Noah’s rainbow in Genesis or the spectrum when light is refracted. How extraordinary is it that no two plants in my small garden are the same shade of green and the sea is a different blue wherever you are in the world, even when it’s the same ocean.
 
Colour affects us hugely as people. The sight of a pink rose in a shop window can lift our spirits and wearing a bright T shirt encourages others to smile back at you. Just as wearing all black casts a sombre impression, walking into a brown painted pub, for instance, makes us wary.
 
When Jacob wanted to show favour to his son Joseph, he gave him a colourful coat.  God has favoured us humans by creating the most awesomely colourful world to appreciate and enjoy.  We should repay that favour by putting our faith and trust in Him.
 
Let’s use Proverbs 3 as a prayer of encouragement:
 
Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
    bind them around your neck,
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
 Then you will win favour and a good name
    in the sight of God and man.
 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body
    and nourishment to your bones.

Image by Valentin from Pixabay