Gray and Gold

Earlier this week I watched a news item about a photographer who liked to capture images of the sun rising. In this particular segment the photographer was on a beach long before sunrise. We saw through his lens a beautiful sight already appearing. There was a stretch of sand with large rocks standing tall near a wall of white cliff. As the sun was not up yet, the images were all in shades of gray. Nonetheless, it was an appealing view.

Then, in a breathtaking moment, all shades of gray disappeared, almost instantaneously, as a wash of golden sunlight swept over earth’s surface. What had been beautiful in shades of gray, was now more vibrant than ever with its true, rich colors of creamy sand, black rocks covered in patches of bright green algae, and the whiteness of cliff wall gleaming in dazzling sunlight.

I whispered my thanks to our heavenly Father for such beauty to behold. He whispered back into my heart, “Mankind is the same without me and then with me.” Contemplating the thought, it came to me the revelation of that lovely truth.

Before we come to know Jesus Christ; before we come to accept His gift of salvation, we may have an already beautiful life, but it’s all in shades of gray. Only when the Light of the World — Jesus — is invited into our lives, does the gray change, instantly, into a golden wash of hope and purpose. Our world is always colored more beautifully when Father God shines His light onto it.

It is when God’s own golden touch paints our lives that we can say with certainty, as Apostle Paul said in Acts 17:24-25, “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since He is the Lord of heaven and earth, He doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve His needs — for He has no needs. He Himself gives life and breath to everything, and He satisfies every need.”