Colors

Did you ever notice how many colors there are?  How many hues of green alone are in the world.  Tints and shades, glossy and matte.  It is rather amazing the infinite number of colors around us.

It is Autumn once again and the trees are a menagerie of colors.  Each solitary leaf will itself journey through a range of colors.  It is beautiful to behold.

And what I find fascinating about all this color around me is the pure beauty of it.  Because honestly the world does not necessitate such vibrancy.  It would be quite possible for the world to have been created with half the colors we know or for there to only be one shade of orange.  Some aspects of creation are necessary because of the nature of God and His character.  "Love" is "good" in creation because God is good, God is love, and love is good.  So why so many colors?

As with everything the answer comes from the character of God, but it is an expression of personality.  It is not utility that spurs this myriad of shades.  We have so many colors simply because God is extravagant.  He does not just make a color, a few colors, but He made a number of colors beyond human comprehension.  God is a God of beauty.  He values things for more than utilitarian function.  He is a God of the concrete and the abstract.  And He chooses to express Himself in awe inspiring ways.  God is extravagant.

Consider God's love for us, each of us personally.  God loves us so much, beyond our understanding.  His love is independent, rooted in Himself.  Now consider my love for God.  My love is rather weak and feeble, and even at my strongest is still entirely dependent upon God and His love.  He initiates I respond.  This imbalance is okay, it is how eternity works.  God loves me with some extravagant and awesome love; a love that He alone is worthy of.  I love God with a small love; a love that is imperfect like me yet God somehow in His extravagance chooses to be blessed by.  How awesome is that?  God loves me as He alone deserves, in response I weakly love God back, and God chooses my love and receives it as more than it is.  It's crazy.  I don't understand it.  But God is extravagant.

Whenever you see colors around you may it remind you of how incredible God is and how extravagant His love is for you.