Red, Crimson and Scarlet
The Ohio River glistened in the
bright sunshine as thousands of runners and walkers lined up beside it. The
participants were running or walking to raise money for a charity that is close
to my heart, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I couldn’t wait to get started.
Looking around me at the starting
line I saw a sea of white. One of the
requirements of this charity run was to wear white. Most of us were in our
white “Color Run” t-shirts given to us when we registered but there were a few
very original white outfits too. White tutus and wedding dresses bought at the
Goodwill appeared to be popular attire.
There was a purpose for wearing white…at
the end of the run, called the “Happiest 5K on the Planet” you would be covered
in color. At every kilometer the runners would be sprayed with different
colors, yellow,
green, blue, purple or pink and at the end of the race
you would look like a human canvas.
My daughter and I had a great time.
As I reflect back on it today I think about how the colors brought life not to
just our attire that day, but to our lives. We laughed a lot with each splat of
color that hit us.
Can you imagine a world without
color? I can’t. More than likely, you have a favorite one. I do and if you would
come to my house today you would recognize it immediately. It’s red!
I love to decorate my home with red… right now the walls in my family room are
red and most of the other rooms in my home are accented with it.
I’m also partial to clothes that are red.
(yes, if I were a football fan, I would like Ohio State just because of their
team color. When my two oldest daughters were in
grade school they had matching red corduroy coats. I can still see them getting
off the school bus, they looked like little red birds, chattering as they came
up the drive way. With their blond hair they looked so pretty in them.
When I see
other people wear red they seem to convey confidence.
I love red foods too. Think tomatoes and
strawberries…..yum.
I have always wanted a red headed
grandbaby too, but I got blonds and brunettes who have turned out to be just as
cute as the redheaded kind.
Actually, I don’t know many people
who don’t like the color red. It’s a vibrant warm color. Red is a color that
stimulates; it arouses an entire palette of emotions, from passion to rage.
Physically, it’s said to increase our blood pressure, our pulse rate and our
respiratory rate. It seems to enhance my energy and enthusiasm.
The color red
seems to grab our attention, especially if we are driving and see it flashing
behind us because we ignored it at the traffic light.
If you’re a
person who is interested in what goes on in Hollywood, you know how important
the red carpet is.
And how about those red flowers? If you are a flower lover like me, you
probably like red tulips in the spring, red roses in the summer, red gerbera
daisies in the fall and the red poinsettia in winter.
Red has been the dominant color of
Christmas decorations for years. And who doesn’t like Christmas?
Finally, red is the color we see
when we think of love.
Since this is our “red hot” December
edition of Living Today and I wanted to tie the devotional for it into the
topic, I decided to see if the color red is mentioned in the Bible. Imagine my
dismay when I only founded it listed three times in the concordance of my
Bible. So I looked for the word scarlet. It was only listed one time! Crimson?
Once again! What was interesting though
was that all three of those words were found in the same verse. So that’s the
verse I went to. I knew it had to be a good one if it mentioned my favorite
color three times.
What I found though was something
not very pleasant. My favorite color was being used to describe something I
don’t like to think about. My sins.
In Isaiah 1:18, I found these words:
“Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though our sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool.”
I had to think about that verse for
a few weeks before I could finish this article. I kept thinking about how
Christmas is a happy time and no one would want to read about their sins at
this time of the year.
But what better time to think about our
sins? If you are a Christian today you
know we celebrate Christmas this month because God looked down on a sinful
world and wanted to fix it. The only way He could think of doing it was to give
us the gift of salvation. And the only way He could do that was by sending to
us the most precious gift He had, His Son Jesus.
Jesus came to us as a baby on a
starry night in Bethlehem. His parents were young and frightened, but ready to
accept the responsibility of One so precious, knowing that He would be the
solution to the sin of the world.
Today, two thousand years later, He
remains a gift, wrapped in love. He is the gift we can accept or reject. By
accepting this gift, our sins can be as white as the snow we all wish for on
Christmas.
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