As I was sitting in the chair at the nail salon, an educational documentary was on the tv that grabbed my attention. It was about a glass scientist from Berkeley, California Dr. Don McPherson, who accidentally discovered a high-tech lense that fixes color blindness. I was so intrigued by the documentary. They captured footage of people, color blind from birth, experiencing seeing color for the first time. They had never seen the beautiful eye color of their children, or the color of the svelte green grass or the exquisite rainbow that filled the sky. Phenomenal. Their reactions melted my heart. Then ever so subtly, God spoke to me. I want to share with you what He said that posed a challenge to my thought process for as long as i can remember.
As a Christian, who grew up in a multi-cultural church, I was NEVER taught to see color.
Rather, I was taught to be color-blind, that we are all the same. You remember the booster band/sunday school/kids choir song don’t you? “…red or yellow, black or white, we are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” I believe with all of my heart that He does and that He loves us all the same, but…we aren’t all the same. We all share the same blood line as born again believers, however I have four children with the same blood type who are each VERY different.
Sitting there getting my nails painted, He prompted me to think outside of the box for a moment, and it was so profound to me that i want to share it with you. Do you honestly think that God, the creator of ALL living things, couldn’t have made us all the same color if He wanted to? Yet, He didn’t. Because of that, i believe in all of His creative brilliance that there is something He wants us to value, appreciate, celebrate and learn from about COLOR.
I have always surrounded myself with multi-cultural people
Two of my very closest friends LaToni Bell and Victoria Owens, are both racially different from myself. I am an American-Indian, Toni is African-American, and Tori is Hispanic. Individually, we are each very unique and pretty awesome (lol), BUT together? That’s an entirely different story! The combination of the three of us together is on another level. Take any one of us out of the mix, and well…let’s just say we spend the whole time missing them. Our friendship has taught me so much. Way more than about sleeping in silk wraps, edges, and broadening a my Spanish 🙂
In a time where racial tensions are at an all time high…what if we, the church, could see in color for the first time? That we could open up our hearts and minds to more than “SAMENESS”. That we could SEE people like God made them and value that maybe their color brings something to the grand scheme of things that He didn’t want us to miss. God is intentional…He does everything on and with great purpose. I, for one, want to live aware. To see people as they are, as He sees them, as He created them. How boring a gray world would be, maybe that’s why He painted it in LIVING COLOR.
Xoxo,
Steph
No Comments