Those words escaped my mouth last week as the sun finally decided to emerge after weeks of disappearance.  As the rays splashed across the neighbor’s fence, I realized what had been missing in my life—color.

Moldova has spent the last few months imprisoned by the White Witch, trapped by gray clouds and dense fog, icy rain and snow.  I had just spent the morning showing off some Moldovan scenery to guests, a typical gray, wet, and drab day.

But when the sun popped out, it was as if life in Moldova had just been upgraded to HDTV.  Our morning had been spent in black and white, with a few daubs of something that was supposed to resemble yellow, blue, and green.  Yet the hues I had seen were dull representations of color, poor imitations of what a few rays of sunlight revealed as the REAL color.  Winter had drained our land, replacing yellow sunflower with dull brown stems, blue skies with a gray blanket.

That moment of sunlight exposed the truth—reality.

I had an epiphany at that moment, a realization that countless people still live in a colorless world.   They spend their lives thinking they are seeing color, while all they have is a bland version of what they call “life.”  They don’t understand that there is a different level of life, found only when Jesus opens their eyes.

They think they have found joy, but all they have is a pale version of True Joy.
They think they have discovered love, but their version always leaves them lacking.
They think that fulfillment will be found in a color swatch of Money, Fun, Power, Religion, or Sex, only to realize that none of these brings deep satisfaction.

When I encountered Christ as Savior, my life began transitioning into High-Def, an explosion of Color.  The vibrancy of God’s joy made this world’s seem pale.  The serenity of Christ’s peace made me realize the shortfall of this world’s feeble attempts.

I have come to realize that I am not called to repaint Moldova, but to reflect the True Color of God’s mercy and grace.  I don’t have the capacity to change the grayness, but the light of Christ can transform grayness back to color.  I can reflect God’s light, allowing His radiance to shine through my life.

I pray that His light will reveal the color that is already there, the beauty of His creation.  I pray God’s light will awaken people from their satisfaction of the dull and drab, startling them by revealing Reality.

Don’t worry about repainting your world.  Just reflect His light.  And if you are stuck in Black and White, talk to me.  I’d love to point you toward some High-Def Life.

Reflecting His Light,