Reflections

The colour drains as the temperature drops. The landscape hardens to a steely grey, reflecting the frozen ground. What does it take for spiritual fervour to grow cold? It can seem as innocent as a busy schedule. It’s worth the fight to keep stoking the fires of faith with prayer and Bible reading, lest the life drain and Jesus’ reflection in me fades away altogether.

Colours and Moods

I’m surrounded by wallpaper pattern books as we try to decide how to redecorate a bedroom and the dining room. Neither has been touched for over 25 years; suffice it to say, it’s time.

So many designs; so many colours. I thought I wanted something dramatic like black and white with a vibrant splash of red somewhere, but now I find myself drawn to shades of antique blues, rosy pinks and pale golds. Each colour creates a mood. Would a darker wall make for a warmer glow for a candlelit dinner in the dining room – provided I remember to light the candles!? Or would it make the room just feel dismal in this northern country where the sun doesn’t shine as much as we’d like? 

That’s why I’ve got a yellow kitchen, hallway and conservatory – trying to maximise the weak sunlight. 

Geometric or floral? Striped or dotted? Plain or embossed? 

Does it really matter what’s on the walls of our home? Not really, and yet ... God made this world full of beauty and diversity and colour and shape. He didn’t need to make a giraffe with a ludicrous neck, or an elephant with a ridiculous trunk, but he did and it adds to the richness of life. He didn’t need to make each individual unique, every fingerprint a one-off, every personality different from every other personality. But he did, because he is the God of the massive, and the God of the minute. The God of the vast expanse and the God of the tiny detail. And I think he looks at us and delights to see us explore our own inner creative possibilities.

What we put on the wall maybe doesn’t matter so much as the process through which we go as we consider all those choices, and try to come to a compromise with each other. 

I praise God that we don’t live in a world that is just fifty shades of grey.