The sky greeted me and Penelope this morning with an overcast canopy of melancholy white. I sat in the swing and she sat in her little pen and we watched the sun try to burn the cloud cover away. Ever-so often the sky would peek its blue self through the cloud cover. It’s amazing to see all the colors in an overcast sky when you have time to gaze up into the heavens and ponder. There are just as many shades of white as there are shades of other colors.

We usually think of the color white as pure and crisp, like a starched white oxford cloth shirt. I held the white color chart up to the sky mid-day to see if I could see several colors of white. I found seven colors that matched the color chart perfectly — porcelain, daisy, powder, rice, chiffon, snow, and alabaster. Some of the other white shades had interesting names — honey dew, sea shell, old lace, whisper white. Never thought about the colors of the color white till today. Research says there are 150,000 shades of white paint on the market! Jeez!! The Lord, Mother Nature, and Father Sky have myriads of magnificent paint shades to color their Earth. Don’t think we can find their glorious watercolors in a paint store.

Early afternoon the bright sun burst through the cloud cover and slapped me on the face with her hot rays. I was nodding off in the swing and the heat hitting my face instantly shocked me back to reality. Now I was seeing the beautiful azure blue fall sky filled with fluffy clouds coloring themselves gray with rain. We need the rain but those clouds with fat little gray bellies were floating swiftly across the sky. Don’t think they are planning to drop any rain on my neck of the woods. Had a brief wind that set the bamboo to dancing but their rain dance didn’t produce any rain drops.

Oldest brother stopped for a visit this afternoon and sat in the porch swing for a while. We had an enjoyable conversation. His hair was so white and so shiny in the sunshine. I was actually trying to match his hair to the white color chart, thinking his hair was just a regular “white,” and he laughed and said he told the beautician not to cut off any black hair and she said, “Don’t worry, I don’t see any!” We got a good chuckle about that. I think people are so handsome when they age gracefully. I’ll be white headed soon. I’m using the “purple” shampoo now on my salt and pepper hair.

God is always depicted dressed in white. White is symbolically associated with purity, holiness, and righteousness. When we go to God with prayer, asking forgiveness for our sins, he washes us clean, fills us with the white pureness of his love. When we think about the fires of hell we see red and when we think of the beauty of heaven we see white. I think heaven will be gloriously colored like the tail feathers of a peacock, gleaming whites and golds and deep dark purples and burgundies, vivid blues, and emerald greens. The azure blue of a fall sky makes me think of how the sky will look in heaven. God describes heaven as a garden, a paradise of “gold streets and gates of pearls.” I know it’s full of glorious colors and songbirds singing heavenly hymns.

Chief always said heaven was just an extension of Earth and we’d carry on eternal life with our loved ones there like we did while living on Earth. One of my college friends described heaven to her young son as a large front porch, everybody sitting around in beautiful rocking chairs talking and laughing, reminiscing about happy memories. My oldest grandson sees his grandfather in heaven “hanging out with Aunt Rosie, sitting with Georgia (their dog), and seeing everybody up there.” The prospect of seeing my family who have entered heaven ahead of me gives me comfort to know they will welcome me and in heaven we’ll be a loving family all together again.

“Meet me at heaven’s gate, when my time is through, until you whisper my name, my heart will always ache for you,” — Unknown