Living in Color

© 2012 Julie Crane All rights reserved

Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of  doves is heard in our land. - Song of Songs 2:12

It's finally summer here where I live. After so many months of grey skies and dark, naked trees and browned grass ... it is surely breathtaking to see the vibrant array of color! Blue skies, white puffy clouds, green leaves and fields. Flowers! Flowers! Flowers - of every hue imaginable! I find myself stopping and just staring - at a flower. I want to linger. Absorb. What sights to behold. WHAT JOY FILLS MY HEART! Thank You, God. Thank You!

I remember when my son was in Afghanistan for over a year. Everything there was desert tan. Tents. Trucks. Uniforms. Towels. Everything. Drab tan. Then when he came home, he excitedly joined his friends on a trip to the mall. The sights and sounds and smells and the crowds and ...! Sensory overload! I never thought about the effects of living under those conditions and how it might affect someone.

And I recently read a book by a woman who went overseas to finalize an adoption. There - buildings were all cement. Streets grey. People dressed in drab "colors". And cold shoulders to the American.

My son adjusted with a little help from his friends. The author too, and her adopted son, made it back, with the help of many friends. *

But there are still others. Living in a drab, grey world. Physically, emotionally ... Forgotten - in jail. Forgotten in nursing home rooms. Suffering at home from the effects of cancer treatments. Unable to walk any distance or drive. Others. Neighbors. Stuck at home.

Don't go from here feeling guilty. Look at the adoptive mom. She couldn't rescue all those precious children she saw living in dire conditions. But she certainly brightened the life of one.

What would it take to add some living color to a life? A call. A card. A coffee date. A handful of flowers from your garden. A short visit to chat.

Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? (Matthew 25:44)

Living in color.
What will you do? For just one.
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:40)

* Read her amazing story of international adoption in her book, Until We All Come Home by Kim deBlecourt with Ginger Kolbaba.