You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in
the world. – Matthew 5:14 MSG
Recently I’ve become fascinated with stained glass
windows. In many churches, they’re the
most colorful part of the sanctuary—sometimes the only colorful part. One of the reasons for that is the teaching
of the Swiss reformer Huldrich Zwingli. In response to the ornateness of Catholic
churches, Zwingli felt that a plainer church would have less to distract the
congregation from focusing on God. Maybe
so, but I find the plainness to be the distraction.
In the Bible there are a few descriptions of visions in
which people meet God. The settings are
never plain. They’re imaginative and
colorful and filled with sights that cause awe and wonder. Maybe Zwingli felt the church shouldn’t try
to compete with that. But I think the
church would do well to reflect those colorful visions of our creative God.
Of course, “God-colors” are more than stained glass windows
and fantastic visions. The world is
filled with color, both literally and figuratively. There are more than 400,000 different kinds
of flowers in the world, and they come in all sorts of different colors. There are 10 million colors and 18 decillion
variations of color. No wonder the paint
companies keep coming out with new shades to paint with.
Our sporting events are narrated by color commentators who
help us interpret the actions happening in the game we’re watching. After a political speech, the commentators
color our understanding of the words said by giving us their perspective. There are potentially as many different
perspectives as there are listeners.
Maybe God-colors are less tangible, less visible. The essence of God is goodness. 1 John says that God is love. Bringing out those colors would be to do good
things, love one another, notice the goodness and love in one another, and
encourage each other to be compassionate, considerate, and kind.
Bringing out the God-colors might also be shining light on the
ways and places that people are being hurt or mistreated. In Acts 16, the magistrates have Paul and
Silas beaten and imprisoned. The next
day they seem to regret their decision and tell the jailer to let them go free,
but Paul refuses to leave in secret. He
wants the world to know that something wrong has happened, so he makes some
noise about it, bringing the issue to light.
In my own life, I fight plainness and resist dull and drab
and beige and gray. I enjoy color. It
helps my mood. It feels more fun. It feels more like God to me.
What does “God-colors” mean to you?
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