Shades of Gray

Gray. Even the name sounds bad...gloomy, dreary, muddled. I've never liked it.

It's in between black and white. Does it really count as a color anyway?

Gray is complicated. Black and white are simple. Clean. You know what you're getting with those colors. But gray is another matter altogether...

When I was younger, I saw everything in black and white, and things were simple. It was either right or wrong. Good or bad. Hero or villain.

But somewhere along the way, I grew up. I began to see specks in what used to be a white canvas. What happened? Who let those specks in, or were they there all along?

I was happy in my world of simplicity. It's safe there.

But about the time I started seeing the specks, I also began to see the flaws in my clear-cut world. Here, I discovered, was legalism and judgement that I never before recognized.

I came to find out that life isn't simple. It isn't black and white. It's not nice and neat. But I also discovered there's beauty there.

Don't get me wrong - I still am not a fan of the color gray, nor am I a lover of the basic colors in the box of crayons. The bright red, yellow, green and blue crayons don't catch my eye. It's the shades in between that are so strikingly beautiful. It's those transition colors when we look up at a beautiful rainbow that are so amazing. They flow from one color to the next, allowing them to connect so that we see a stunning sight.

It's the shades of gray that make life beautiful. It's there where we find mercy, grace, love and acceptance. If we are so brave to step into what seems like muddy waters to reach out to someone in need, we might just find an amazing rainbow at the end of the journey.