God's Blue

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-5

It has been so very long ago, that I've forgotten the name of the special paper we had to buy for that class we had to take, that class called Color. I remember it was expensive back then, in my make-every-penny-count college days. I probably could have eaten for a couple of weeks on the amount that precious pack of paper cost. But I wouldn't have eaten steak.

And the blades for our knives had to be sharp, sharp enough to slice through the clay-coat layer without chipping it. One clean, hard, sweeping press at exactly ninety degrees. Some taped the paper to the glass before cutting, some held it with gloved fingers. Tongues touching teeth in concentration, eyes focused on the straightedge and the knife.

We changed color in that class, made optical illusions by placing one against a variety of others to fool our brains into seeing what wasn't there. We learned about hue and shade and shadow, how sunlight casts violet into the green of the grass, how to squinch the color out of an object in order to find its value.

I learned that no matter how expensive the paper, no matter if I bought the packet of 256 sheets, or the packet of 512 sheets, there weren't enough blues to satisfy my hunger for sky and water.

My family went camping last weekend and I drank in the blue of the sky and the blue of the river. I noticed how the green leaves framed the water and deepened its hue. God's blue. It is more than enough.

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