I studied the color on the wall. Beautiful, but … a little strong? While our painter called it grey-green, I saw grey-green-blue. It was darker than I had thought from the 2×2 paint chip–but striking. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted it lighter, or liked the drama of the deeper color, a very different look than we have with our current pastel-colored walls. So I’ve asked Bruce to paint one full wall so I can look at the shade over a larger area.

Don and I have been choosing new paint colors for our home. I had a pretty strong sense of what I wanted in most of the house, but relied on Bruce to help select colors for the hall and our master bedroom. Now I needed to decide whether we want to make some tweaks or are settled on these as the final colors for our new home.

Color. I love it! I’m awed by the corals and oranges and yellows of a vibrant sunset, as well as the more subtle mauves and roses that same sunset evidences as it fades. I delight in the hot pink, canary yellow, and burgundy and white of the dahlias in our yard; the vibrant purple of the Mexican sage and the fiery red blooms on the large shrubs by the porch. I’m touched by the vibrant orange-red wall with the yellow door in the photo at left. I feel alive when wearing fire-engine red, dramatic teal, chartreuse, or rich turquoise.

When I was a student at Fresno Pacific College years ago we had a color fountain. Many evenings I sat on the steps around the fountain with friends, watching as the colors changed from green to blue to orange to yellow, trying to decide which was my favorite color. I liked them all! I found that the orange and yellow energized me, while green and blue were calming–the psychology of color, used effectively in advertising.

And I think, what if God made the world in black and white? While I like black and white–elegant clothing, dramatic checkerboard floors, Ansel Adams photography–I would miss the tremendous variety our Creator has placed all around us, from the myriad shades of green among the trees surrounding our property to the many skin tones and eye colors among humans, to the fascinating colors of various spices in a Marseilles marketplace. He created a vastness of beauty in this world, in and around us, and I am ecstatic at the wonder of it all.

When is the last time you were speechless because of some color wonder you saw? Scripture says that “every good and perfect gift is … from the Father” (James 1:17). And the gift of beauty–of color, of form and shape and love–is certainly one of His good gifts which delight my heart.

I’m really curious to know what I’ll decide when I see an entire wall in the grey-green-blue paint I think I want in our living room. Will it entice and enliven my senses or will it overwhelm me? I’ll let you know!

“For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies

For the beauty of the hour
Of the day and of the night
Hill and vale and tree and flower
Sun and moon and stars of light

Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn of praise

For the joy of human love
Brother, sister, parent, child
Friends on earth and friends above
For all gentle thoughts and mild

For each perfect gift of thine
To our race so freely given
Graces human and divine
Flow’rs of earth and buds of heav’n

Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn of praise” Author: Folliott Sandford Pierpoint (1864)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpEbQGsPqHE