So many beautiful colors in my world today — the colorful shades and patterns of the beautiful songbirds in their myriad of plumage, the bright clean white of the clouds mixed with grays and purple tints, the wondrous winter blue of Father Sky’s sketched sky canvas, the golden yellow rays of the sunshine, the dark greens of the old magnolia leaves, the brown sugar color of the oak leaf ballerinas, the happy yellow of the dandelions. I never fail to check on my little dandelion garden in the yard next door, always smiling at me when Penelope and I walk by. I know they enjoyed the warmth of the sun today.

I think our Earth is a big coloring book for God, each day unfolding a new page of his glorious coloring. And what a resplendent box of crayons he holds. I love how he colors the roses and the rainbows. I learned in my reading today the Bible begins and ends with a rainbow. In Genesis scripture reads, “The rainbow of God’s promise shines across the world.” In the Book of Revelation we read, “The emerald rainbow shines around the the throne of God in heaven.”

In the little box of original Crayola crayons the eight colors are black, red, orange, blue, yellow, green, purple, and brown. In the Bible we associate the color black with sin and suffering and death. I think of red in the Bible as our sins that are washed white by God’s grace. “Though your sins are like scarlett, I will make them white a snow, Isaiah 1:18. Orange is found in scripture about fire and the “fruit of the spirit.” The color blue is described as pure and perfect and is associated with heaven and the law. Yellow was a scared color in the Bible symbolizing glory and prosperity and the harvest. Think how wonderous God colors the harvest moon in luminous shades of yellow and orange. Always a wonder to behold.

And the beautiful green from God’s crayon box on the landscape of earth representing life. The color purple is seen in royalty and majesty in Bible scripture. Jesus was robbed in purple and mocked as King of the Jews by the Roman soldiers. Mark 15:17 states, “And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.” The color brown is not explicitly mentioned in scripture but the color brown would be associated with the earth and natural elements. We have to place a ninth crayon in that box, a white crayon for the biblical doves and to refer to holiness and God’s light of purity.

God took his box of crayons, used a multitude of shades from each crayon, and created the earth and the sky. He colored light for the day and gave life to the darkness. He crafted a vibrant world with his crayons and filled it with creatures and people, each of us wonderfully made and unique in our gifts for life. On the seventh day he put his crayons up and rested. I know he was proud when he woke on Monday and saw the wondrous Earth he had created. And he did it for us!

God could have created our world in black and white but he gave us the gift of beauty.

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” ― Henry David Thoreau