A World With No Color

The news in the last week has been disheartening and sad.  It doesn't matter who you are or the color of your skin, if you've watched the deaths at the hands of law enforcement and the deaths of those retaliating those actions continuing to split the country by color, you should feel sad.  

I have best friends that are black, and I have friends who are police officers.  I love them both.  I don't agree with the actions we've seen in the past week and feel like I want to just live in a world without color.  But how boring would this world be without color?  Yet, if we were all green, then maybe all of this would stop, and the issues at the heart of this would be addressed.  We're sinful people living in a fallen world.  We all need a Savior.

This past weekend, I spent a lot of time with my church family, and as I reflected on the activities I did, I was reminded how "colorless" my world is, or rather, how I don't "see" color.  Saturday morning I celebrated with a woman at our church about to become a Mom for the first time.  This precious little girl is being born to a sweet couple that will raise her to love the Lord and to not see color.  I left that baby shower and headed to a "farewell" gathering for one of my great friends who is heading westward to take on his dream of teaching at the college level.  It just so happens, that great friend is black.  I don't see him as black.  We all hugged him and will miss seeing him regularly, and see him as family, not black.  Both black and white will miss him terribly and thanks to technology can keep up with him much easier.

Last night, our church family had a building community night, which means to us, fun times after the evening service.  We had organized kickball games between teams of young 'uns and old folks, a bluegrass band, and Steel City Pops which seem to be life altering, but I'd say it takes two for that change to occur.  Our church is blessed to have many members of law enforcement as part of our family, and our congregation - black and white - love and respect them.  I couldn't help but look around at all the colors I saw, too.  Families who've adopted children from Africa and Ethiopia.  A church family full of all sorts of "color" of people and, again, I didn't see color.  I did see the cutest little bluegrass dancers and Popsicle eaters around.  By the end of the evening, I'd almost forgotten the way the rest of the world operates.  

If you're like me, you're sick of all the hate, violence and division you see in this country.  I've decided that we need to adopt a new song that this country needs to sing...and the lyrics go something like this....

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world.  

Jesus doesn't see color.  Nor should we.