Color Blindness

 by Macy Johnson

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.

Honor one another above yourselves.”

(Romans 12:10 NIV)

 

My husband is colorblind. He has a mild case of deuteranomaly, a form of color blindness in which the green cones in the eye detect too much red light and not enough green light. As a result, reds, greens, yellows, and browns can appear similar. Jeff’s dreams of becoming a Navy pilot crashed with a tell-tale medical exam. In 1974 it was unacceptable for a pilot to be even slightly colorblind. He has learned to be content with his aberration.

 

Along those same lines, I sometimes wonder what it would feel like to have personally known my biological parents. People have asked me what it feels like to be adopted. It is normal for me. Like Jeff and his colorblindness, which is normal for him.

 

When our son wanted to take flying lessons, he took a color blindness test to see if he could read colored charts properly. He happily discovered that trait was not passed down from his father and enjoyed many flight lessons.

 

Jesus commands us to be colorblind in a spiritual sense. He created this beautiful world with a spectacular spectrum of colors and reminds us color differences are for our enjoyment, not fodder for criticism or judgment.

 

Satan likes to rear his ugly head, put a wedge between God’s children, and tell us one color is better than the other. Jesus begs to differ. He has no preference. All are beautiful in their own way.

 

Oh, that we could all be like my husband! We don’t need special sunglasses to help make the color distinctions, we need spectacles of love to be blind to all differences.

 

I will honor others above myself, along with the colors they strikingly reflect. I hope you will, too!