Five Minute Friday - COLOR

It's FRIDAY! And that means it's time for another 'Five Minute Friday'. 'Five Minute Friday' is where as, our hostess and inspiration, The Gypsy Mama, puts it, we write "For only five short, bold, beautiful minutes. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not."

Want to join us? Then be sure and visit The Gypsy Mama today! 

Now...for today's assignment...

Go!

Ah! COLOR! I needed this assignment today! It's been an awful week. Busy, yet blah and bland...full of problems (minor ones, really, when you consider the big scope of everything, yet, irksome when you're working through the process of it all) and nearly colorless. Which is unfortunate because today is "our" Christmas Eve.

Tomorrow is our family Christmas...our annual get-together based on whenever our youngest daughter and her husband are able to get away and join us for a time of celebration...which is usually two weeks before Christmas. I so look forward to it every year! Having our daughter and son-in-law here, gathering together with the rest of our children, their spouses, and all of our grandlittles (that's 22 people right there!), plus my dad and anyone else who happens to join us. It's always a joyous time! And spending time with my youngest daughter always puts me "in the pink!" (smile)

Speaking of our youngest daughter and color...

Amanda's favorite book growing up was "Hailstones and Halibut Bones - Adventures in Color" by Mary O'Neill. Ever hear of it? If you're looking for a book on color to share with your children...THIS is THE book! It's AWESOME! Here's how it starts...

"Like acrobats on high trapeze
The Colors pose and bend their knees
Twist and turn and leap and blend
Into shapes and feelings without end..."

Then it goes through each color...purple, gold, black, brown, blue, gray, white, orange, red, pink, green, and yellow...and talks about what each one is and how they live "between black and white" and how they make you feel.

Which brings me to my next thought...

How many of us live our lives between black and white, yet never experience any color other than gray? How many times, because of problems that present themselves in our lives (be they spiritual, physical, financial, or other), do we never rise above the muck and mire of them to see the beautiful  colors that God has created in our lives. There is a poem that comes to mind...

THE WEAVER

My life is just a weaving
Between my Lord and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaves so skillfully.

Sometimes He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.

Not ‘til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And explain the reasons why-

The dark threads are as needful,
In The Weaver’s skillful hands
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.



                          ~ by B.M. Franklin - 1882-1965

Okay...longer than five minutes and more of a rambling lesson in literature than anything else, but bottom line is this...when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, instead of losing sight of the color that the Lord has provided in our lives...let us remember that, while we're here...struggling...He already sees the finished work. Instead of going through the motions living a  colorless life, let us, rather, choose to look for the color around us and live purposefully by fixing our eyes on Jesus...the author and finisher of our faith...and living our lives for Him.

Stop!