Just over 16 years ago my younger, and only brother was killed in a plane crash. It changed things, and it changed me. For a long times the colour went out of certain parts of my world.
When we suffer loss, hardship, or experience a tragedy it is very easy to enlist coping mechanisms, which often results in the more creative and life giving parts of our life withdrawing within us as we try to cope with all that we are facing.
When my brother was killed I found myself no longer wanting to play the piano, to paint or to write. It just wouldn’t flow out of me, almost like a big blanket of grey suddenly enveloped all the colourful, creative and expressive parts of my life.
But time heals, if we allow God to work in our lives, and upon His promptings I gradually found myself actually wanting to paint again. It was as if I needed to push past the grey, and let the colour out to aid the healing process. So I did, and strangely enough as I drew and painted my way through an art course something shifted on the inside of me. The lid lifted on my sadness and the life and literal colour that had been squished under hurt and “grey” started to flow out of my soul.
In a sense God led me to my own art therapy course, where I could create with paint, and words. Studies have discovered that the art making process is a way of opening up about certain things or issues we would normally avoid. That’s because art has a natural healing component in its own right, because God has wired us like Him to create. The act of creating art can be a source of healing, expression, relaxation, a cathartic release or just a pleasant distraction.
I discovered art and colour play a vitally important role in the world in which we live. It can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. Art is a powerful form of communication and as I painted I was able to express how I felt, and allowing the release of bottled up emotions that I had been keeping a lid on. As a result I finally experienced the healing and freedom I needed.
Today I encourage you to find the colour that is residing on the inside of you. You may feel like it’s all grey everywhere, but it’s not. God has created you with the ability to express, and enjoy, and to have life flow out of you. When we open up our hearts He literally pours colour into our “grey worlds”, and lifts the lid on our ability to experience, express and enjoy life.
If you feel “colourless”, ask Jesus to help you work through anything that may be stealing the light from your world. I recommend trying some art therapy in whatever form that may take: whether in paint, words, song, dance, construction or creating in some other way. We are made in the image of a creative God, who surrounds Himself with all the colours of the rainbow; therefore it makes sense that we too need to create to be fully immersed in who we are.
“A rainbow, resembling an emerald encircled the throne.” (Revelation 4:3)
Create something today, (it doesn’t’ matter if you think you are artistic or not), and let the light of Jesus’ love shine through your life, bringing healing and colour back into your world.
“He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite. The LORD supports the afflicted”. (Psalm 147:4-6)
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