Seeing beauty in life’s entire palette

“In our life, there is a single color, as on an artist’s palette,

which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love.”

-- MARC CHAGALL

Last Monday morning, I woke up to the melodies of singing birds

and the hum of a breeze gently tapping on our window shutters. Even

before opening my eyes, I could tell that the sun was clearly bright

and on duty for the day.

It was the morning after a wonderful weekend with family and

friends and fun Mother’s Day celebrations. God seemed to have painted

the days with extra love, light and laughter. We also enjoyed the

spectacular weather.

“Maybe God wanted Mother’s Day to be beautiful because mothers are

so special,” I heard a woman say to her friend as I walked by them at

a nearby park.

Mothers are special, but everyone is special to God. Besides, far

more mothers live where the climate was not ideal on Mother’s Day, or

many days of the year, but God doesn’t love them any less.

I talked to some friends for whom Mother’s Day and other holidays

are painful times, because of loss of life of loved ones or strained

relationships with family members.

Unfortunately, those are days when it seems that the colors of

life ran together and left a mix of muddy brown. I talked to a woman

before Mother’s Day who said that although she had a great

relationship with her mother when she was alive, she had strained

relationships with her siblings after her mother passed away. She

wanted to do something to reconnect with them, but didn’t know how.

“We always had fun together when we were young,” my friend said.

“I can’t even remember what led to the distance between us years ago,

but I think it’s time to ask God to bring some of his love, and

hopefully healing to the rest of our family. I really think this

could be our year,” she said with a new spark in her voice.

I talked with that friend again after Mother’s Day. She said that

she prayed for God’s wisdom about her siblings, and one answer came

through an old photo album.

“My heart started softening, and I laughed and cried at the

pictures of some of our silly parades and art shows”, she said.

She also began writing letters to her brothers and sisters and

plans to mail them soon.

“If we’re able to get together, we’ll have to have another parade

or art show,” she said excitedly. “I’ll be sure our children are

there or involved and that someone takes pictures or videos.”

Relationships require many different attitudes and actions. If we

were artists, some of the colors we would need to add to paint over

past pain and minimize futures hurts are forgiveness, grace, honesty,

humility and love. These are the very things God offers to us as

individuals every day.

These are also the very things he is more than happy to help us

extend to others when we ask him to be part of the process. God can

take any mix of colors in our lives and turn them into something

truly and deeply beautiful.

And you can quote me on that.

* CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON is a Newport Beach resident who speaks

frequently to parenting groups. She may be reached via e-mail at

[email protected] or through the mail at P.O. Box 6140-No. 505,

Newport Beach, CA 92658.