language of color.

I've always been drawn to color and know that it's always made things make sense for me.  Right down to making sure the different shades of green on my socks and on my shirt "match", I knew it was integral in my life.  Even at a young age, I was told I had an eye for color.  Somehow, shades and hues just speak to me.  Most multiplication answers, numbers, memories, words, etc. have a color association in my mind. One of my roommates used to ask me what I saw when I closed my eyes and thought of specific words.  It became a game of swirling colors!

I knew color was special to me, but it wasn't until I was in my early 20s when I realized how much color meant to me.  It was winter and I had a day off, so I decided to take a drive out to the mountains.  I don't remember the specific place I went, but I do remember the thoughts I had, I wish it was spring, summer, or fall so I could at least photograph something with color.  I still got out of my car and went for a small hike anyway.

As I looked around me, I just saw a white, nearly colorless place.  The evergreens seemed dull and the all the other ground was covered with bleakness.  Regardless of what it looked like, being out there helped me feel closer to God and that's what I was after.  I'd never audibly heard His voice or really felt like I "heard" him before, but I talked to Him anyway.  That day, I remember asking specifically if He'd somehow speak to me.

 At one point, I closed my eyes for a minute or so, and when I opened them again ... I heard Him.

"If you look the right way, you can see the whole world is a garden..." ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

The gold moss seemed  to pop off the north faces of the trees.  Greys and purples radiated off of the rocks close to me and the mountains in the distance.  Branches and their twigs' ends were like black polka dots.  The trunks of the birches were no longer just white, but an off-linen-white.  What was once insipid and colorless, now spoke life.

Colors no longer were just beautiful, but living.  It's like it just hit me, God speaks to me through His creation, through His colors. 

Now, to me, when I see color, it's God's way of speaking to me.  When I see a pallid landscape, if I just look further and listen deeper, I see the colors.  I hear His voice.  He gave me my eyes to see through, and what I see AND hear is a gift - His voice.  

And secondly, my special language with Him.

pic pix: out my window this morning, 13.Jan.2014, at home