[441 words]
Quite often, when someone learns that I am colorblind, they begin to quiz my ability to see colors. “What color is this?” “And how about this one-what color is this?” Colorblindness is not the same for every person that experiences it. For example, I know a man that is so red-green colorblind that if he were to approach a traffic light that had been turned on its side, he would not know which side was red and which side was green. While I do have some red-green colorblindness, it is not that extreme. Here is my point-I still see color. I can observe its beauty and praise God for His handiwork. But when it comes to making a distinction between two colors, there are some with which I have trouble, so I choose not to make those distinctions if I can get away with it (e.g., determining someone’s eye color).
When it comes to our relationships with our fellow man, we need to develop colorblindness. A friend recently said, “Human beings are strange. We look at all the different colored flowers and say, ‘how beautiful,’ but our attitude changes when we look at all the different colored people God made.” We need to be able to observe the beauty of the different colors without making distinctions. I see this trait in God.
“For there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). No gender, no color, no nationality, no cultural background, nor social status can prevent a person from obeying the Gospel and becoming a child of God. Paul, by inspiration of God, put it like this: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28).
Part of me wants to marvel that the world around us is still caught up in racism (distinctions of skin colors), but I understand that division is of the devil, and as long as the world follows him, it will be present. What is astonishing is when those that are in Christ make such distinctions. Such ought not to be so!
God is colorblind. He delights in the beauty of colors, not the division of them. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). To God be the glory.
Clifton Angel
via Nesbit Church of Christ
Nesbit, MS