Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_funlovingvolvo'> / 123RF Stock Photo</a> (for picture collage of flowers)
The sunshine warm upon my shoulders, I gaze out at the yard to survey its ever-changing pallet. I see the most brilliant yellow of the mini daffodils near the office window, the purest white of the snowdrops beneath the maple tree, a warm and glowing pink of a primrose peeking among the yet to be scraped up winter leaves and the wonderful green of the rhubarb springing to life once again. Color. Alive and beautiful color.
But the color that thrilled me this morning was an amazing shade of brown against the white sheets in the bed as I rose from them. My skin.
There is a lot of talk in the news these days about color - skin color in particular. It is conversation that needs to happen and conversation that is far from over. There is talk of judgment because of color and benefit because of color and we know that neither are right. There are uneasy answers given to hard questions and hearts being searched for truths.
Through it all I hear a recurring word: colorblind. I did a bit of reading and one particular description referred to colorblindness as "a color vision deficiency". The phrase immediately pricked at my heart. You see, I spent a long time thinking I was/wanted be colorblind, trying to treat each person I came in contact with as equals by ignoring their skin. On the surface it sounds good but I have found that theory to be flawed. A deficiency even.
Webster's dictionary defines deficiency as this: "a lack of something that is needed : the state of not having enough of something necessary" "a problem in the way something is made or formed". Deficient.
We (that means me and you and all mankind) were created (formed) in God's very image, breathed into life by him and when he was done, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
VERY GOOD.
So no, I don't want to be colorblind. I want to see diversity of skin as beautiful and necessary. I want to see every God-created, God-breathed individual as the unique person they are - including the beautiful skin wrapping they arrived in. I want to celebrate the exotic brown of my half Indonesian cousins, the beautiful tan of my half Native American niece, the gorgeous freckled cream of my friend's daughters, the stunning Ethiopian black of a family friend. The red hair, the black hair, the brown, the blonde, the ash. The curly, the straight, the wavy. The green eyes, the blue eyes, the brown eyes. The short, the medium, the tall, the very tall and the very small. All shapes, all sizes, all makes, all models. All equally yet uniquely created. All beautifully created with promise and purpose inside. None deficient.
Each are precious in His sight.
You are precious in His sight.
Loving the skin we are in, loving the skin other's are in might not change the race dialogue - but it's a start. Color. Alive and beautiful color. Will you celebrate with me today?
Linking up with Kristin for Three Word Wednesday and Jennifer for #TellHisStory and Barbie at the Weekend Brew.
Update: This post is currently featured on Simply Fresh Dinners Tuesday Tidbits.
