This week, we were to think about the color red. Kristen offered a great reflection on red to get the juices flowing. And here is mine.
I've heard that if you want to have a good sense of what colors work well together, look in nature. Whether it's the colors of the desert contrasted against the blue sky, the colors of a Portland cloudy sky, the ocean, or the colors in a field of wild flowers. After hearing that, I've paid attention to natural views to see how God puts colors together. It's always amazing. To be clear, this is not true with man-made vistas; whether it's a poorly designed flower bed, or bad colors on a building. I'm talking about God's palette, not ours.
When looking out at God's paintings and sculptures, red sees to be one of the least commonly used colors. For me, that means that when it shows up, it's absolutely striking. The red in that perfect sunset. One red poppy in a field of otherwise-pastel wildflowers. The scarcity of natural red causes me to halt whenever I see it.
The one exception to my theory about the frequency of natural reds is in roses. Portland Oregon has a beautiful and expansive Rose Garden. And I admit that when I get to the rows and rows of red, it's overwhelming. Too much red. To be clear, it's beautiful but it's also so RED, it's almost too much. Then again, most of the rose varieties now are more human engineered than nature, and certainly rows and rows of RED roses are humanly planted.
In my church traditions, we designate different seasons of the church year with different colors, and red is one of the colors. And like in nature, it's the least frequently used colors. We wear red and cover the altar in red on Pentecost, to remind us of the fire of the Holy Spirit. We also wear red for Palm Sunday, when the passion of Jesus is read. Two times a year. It's striking when it appears in nature and in church.
Another unique thing about red is that if you try to find a lighter red, soon it ceases to be red and instead becomes pink. Do the same to blue, yellow or green, and you get light blue, light yellow or light green. They remain their colors. But red is only red when it's full of pigment.
All of that is to say that I have a healthy respect for the color red. It's a beautiful color, rich with meaning, scarce in nature, and saturated with pigment. There's nothing common about red. I'm not sure I'd say I love the color red, although I love when I get wear my red vestments.
And Mary's red egg? Startling, rich with meaning, and pigment. Red seems to be one way God gets us to stop what we're doing and pay attention.
What do you think about when you think of the color red?
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