Praise-Palette: A New Spiritual Discipline?
I've got this idea for a kind of spiritual discipline in which you actively and intentionally look for the most common and everyday thing, the most overlooked thing, and you simply refuse to "overlook" it. You contemplate its beauty and its place in creation, and you praise God for it.
Well, thinking about this led me to think about colors, because colors are very overlooked (at least by me), and to think about praising God for colors! And then I started thinking about picking a single color each day, and looking for that color in the course of the day, and cataloguing the beautiful instances of that color that you come across, making a list, and at the end of the day praising God for that color. One color per day, right through the crayon-box!
What do you think? Have I lost my mind? Well, if I have, a blog is the perfect place to lose it, don't you think?
So I decided to do some research. The first box of Crayola crayons (back in 1903) contained these colors:
Black / Brown / Orange / Violet / Blue / Green / Red / Yellow
I could start with these. But then again, I could get really ambitious. I could expand my praise-palette to include all the colors from the 64-color box introduced by Crayola in 1949 (which is probably the set of colors I used as a boy):
Apricot / Gold / Orange / Silver / Bittersweet / Gray / Orange Red / Spring Green / Black / Green / Orange Yellow / Tan / Blue / Green Blue / Orchid / Thistle / Blue Green / Green Yellow / Periwinkle / Turquoise Blue / Blue Violet / Lemon Yellow / Pine Green / Violet (Purple) / Brick Red / Magenta / Prussian (or Midnight) Blue / Violet Blue / Brown / Mahogany / Red / Violet Red / Burnt Sienna / Maize / Red Orange / White / Carnation Pink / Maroon / Red Violet / Yellow / Cornflower / Melon / Salmon / Yellow Green / Peach (formerly Flesh) / Olive Green / Sea Green / Yellow Orange
Okay. I think I'll give it a try. I'll take the colors in exactly the above order. Tomorrow I hope to be praising God for apricot!
posted by Bob Spencer | 6/05/2004
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9 Comments:
Have you ever noticed how many different colors of green there are in nature? The variety of greens is mind-boggling. That tells us something about the Creator, I think...
So, in order to praise God for apricot, do you have to be able to tell it from...say..peach....or yellow orange?
I think perhaps I won't be quite THAT "legalistic"!!! ;o)
Praise God that the colour of the big living area of my new house is apricot. It has two colours of apricots, the darker one being the featured walls, and the lighter one with the name of the paint colour actually says"the first love". Well, I have to say they don't really look too apricotish, actually a bit pinkish. and the couch we're using at the moment is apricot patterned one. So I'm looking for other apricotish things to go around, like tableclothes, pictures, piano cover,etc. It relates me of thoughts that are warm,yummy, ripe, autumn, flourishing, and love is in the air....
Another two words relating to apricot are glorious and harvest.
A good colour to start.
Susan, thanks for your comments. Your approach to this is inspiring me. A single color can prompt in us a hole host of feelings, they can mean so much more than what they simply are. They can be the tiny portal into a whole realm of praise.
I call the color of the walls in my livingroom peach, but it might be apricot. It's a great color--bright and sunny and yet peaceful rather than glaring like orange or yellow can be. Seems to go pretty well with just about every color, too--even reds, if they're darkish, go with it.
I think I'd like your livingroom, Susan. It sounds lovely.
I suppose Bob has moved on to gold or orange or silver already, leaving us behind on apricot.....
Gold! The apricot showed up in some pansies (I think that's what their called) which I noticed in passing just as I wondered if I was ever going to see any apricot. Thank you, God! I think perhaps you ladies don't have to try so hard to notice colors as most of us guys do. Anyway, yes, now I'm on to gold.
Gold. Hmmm... is gold and golden the same or golden has to be looked at on another day? if it's gold, all I can see is my rings. But golden, I'm in the midst of lots of golden right now, still in my living area(sorry, it's my new house!)there are over 40 lights, ceiling lights, wall lights, all built in. And I have to say, they do create praise feelings.
This is an old post, I know, but what a great idea! It's been many months now...are you still cultivating the spiritual discipline of praising God for overlooked things?
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