My wife and I were just reminiscing. It began with a news article on the defunding of PBS (Public Broadcasting System). We agreed with a comment on how PBS was great back in the early 60s when communication methods were limited. Back when technology wasn’t available. Around 1962, I used to watch The Romper Room where a teacher had a group of well-behaved students who’d use large, bottomless boxes for the kids to put over their heads and pretend to drive around in. Life was simpler then. We only had TV channels 2,4,5,7,9,11, and 13 (PBS). Two of those channels shared the same programming, like 2 and 9.
This was also when TV was black and white, and when color was invented, if you couldn’t afford it, you bought a plastic $.49 colored film to place over your screen. My dad placed ours upside down giving us green skies, blue land, and pinkish-faced people! When remotes first appeared, they had a 6’ wired cable attached to the set. As our pastor (Carl) once said, “In the 60s you either had a limited wired remote, or you had kids to change your TV channels!” Years later, when I first heard there were about 130 channels, I thought that was crazy! I remember thinking, “Who can watch so many things at once?”
All this reminded us of a time when paint colors were also limited. Somewhere towards the end of the 1950s and early 60s, people bought Avocado Green, Canary Yellow, or Sky-Blue paint. People didn’t spend hours color-matching their gray linoleum with “hints” of blue from their time-worn tapestries. You simply bought a gallon of yellow or green paint (probably $1/gal) and plastered your walls with it. If unsure, you bought beige or white. Not even off-white or eggshell existed.
We laughed at how my parents bought their home in PR in the early 80s and the division walls in the back room were 3/16” thin decorative panels. The type was just a bit thicker than paper, and maybe, as thick as a cardboard! You could lean on them and go right through the walls! They reminded me of what a high school teacher taught us about Japanese home with rice paper decorative walls invented for barriers but not for much privacy.
A few years ago, we visited a wood house our son wanted to buy. As we were checking it out and deciding upon/against it, I leaned on a wall and almost went right through it! I had to be grabbed and pulled out! Which reminds me of that funny scene in the Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World where two guys with super-thinned walls are having a Grand Opening at their garage-tire shop and have it demolished in no time!
Life in the 1960s was simple. After several years you might remodel your kitchen. You’d go from one two-gallon bucket as a sink, to 2 two-gallon buckets! Had your heart set on a farm sink? You’d move up to a huge five-gallon bucket! After all, how many people could claim having that?! Modernization came at a price (about $.79)!
Today we have thousands of color choices. There are shades of every color out there and names created by each manufacturer. From lazy summer to (probably) crabby cream; boring fall, and frigid-freezing winter!
We can be sure God has no boring colors in heaven! From the vibrant colors on the ephod (mentioned in the books of Exodus and Leviticus), to the colors of the rainbow surrounding His throne. God’s majesty involves the riches, most profound colors ever! His throne room and His habitation aren’t decorated in boring pale colors! God’s tastes call for exuberant and vibrant colors of majesty, splendor, riches, royalty, and Kingship. He doesn’t dwell in black and white. He isn’t affected by life’s pressures. He lives outside this realm. He inhabits earth, heaven, the oceans, and every galaxy out there. There isn’t a space or void He doesn’t fill. He fills the void in your heart. Knows your questions, doubts and fears. God even inhabits our praises (Psalm 22:3).
With one (brush) stroke, He can paint your life from pale to bright; from insecure to confident; from stranger to friend; from distant to near, from lost to saved.
“But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).
God Bless!
Sam