With fall in full force, the trees here in New Jersey are bursting with color. The reds, the yellows, the oranges, and even the browns of fall are as awe-inspiring as are the purples and pinks of spring. The colors of the season highlight the fact that we live in a colorful world. Not only that, but the way we react to the colors of fall (e.g. going to “see the colors” and all the pictures we take), reminds us that we were made for color. Our eyes were designed to perceive color and our brains designed to interpret it. We paint our homes with an array of colors both inside and out. We are intrigued by artists who know how to use color in just the right way or the designer who knows how to bring the right colors together. We create fabrics that are filled with color and thus wear clothing filled with color. And we can’t help but comment on the colors of a rainbow or of a sunrise or sunset as they show up in the sky. Again, we seem to be made for color.
As I was growing up, my family had only a black and white television—even though color tv’s were available. Thus, when I watched “The Wizard of OZ,” I didn’t know that when Dorothy landed in OZ, the movie changed from black and white to color. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned that the movie was filled with color. That meant, for all of those years my siblings and I had missed out on the profound effect that color was meant to bring to the story.
In C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe,” as long as the White Witch has control over Narnia, the world is just white and grey. But when the great lion Aslan comes and breaks the witch’s spell, Narnia is overtaken by color. It’s meant to be a picture of the vibrancy and life that Jesus (symbolized through the lion, Aslan) brings as he breaks the curse of sin both over our personal lives and over our world.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 – NIV) We might say, Jesus takes our lives from the dreariness of black and white and grey—and all of the terrible effects of sin—and fills them with the colors of God’s love, mercy, peace, hope, kindness, salvation, and newness of life. Truly, he makes all things new—as new as Narnia going from the white of winter to the colors of spring!
All of that leads me to this question: Are you and I living our lives in the black and white and grey of this world, as if Jesus had never come? Or, are we living our lives filled with the vibrant colors that Jesus is able and has promised to bring? I trust that the second is true for you.
Have a great day! And, enjoy the colors of fall!
- Pastor Tim Harris
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