Confusing Color

I went up to Flagstaff last weekend to visit with my friend Danielle, who recently moved up there for grad school. We had such a lovely time, and I'm excited to brave the cold sometime this winter and visit again...

I drove home Sunday evening right around sunset. Anyone who's ever done any driving between Phoenix and northern AZ is familiar with a place called Sunset Point - a well-equipped rest area with dramatic views. Many a vacation in my life has had its first stop at Sunset Point. A mocha with Danielle just before leaving Flagstaff necessitated a bathroom stop there on my way home this time around, so I counted down the miles as I approached it...

The rest area looks off to dramatic mountain views on one side of the highway, and the area on the other side of the road is mostly flat, which also adds some drama. But this time, as I got close, I noticed some mountains off in the distance on the flat side, that I'd never noticed before. And something about the light at the time of the day, hitting those mountains, was breathtaking. They were this odd shade of green (a color we Arizonans treasure) that I really can't describe, and couldn't capture on film once I tried. It was absolutely beautiful, and it got me philosophizing...please forgive me, this may be intensely cheesy...

So often in my life, especially in the past year or so, I've wished that things could just be black and white. I've wished that there was a correct answer to all of life's questions that could be deciphered by some sort of an equation. The messiness and unpredictability of life has been a source of much frustration.

And yet...how beautiful is color! And how beautiful a God who chose to include color as He planned the details of our world. Black and white would be a little easier to understand, but easy is not what God intended. Instead, He does things in a complex, artistic way, as only the Creator could do. The green on that mountain did not provide any concrete answers...but I certainly wouldn't have traded it for black and white.