Purple

Visiting our daughter in Seattle, I marveled at the abundance of purple in her life. Hair, hearing aids, wheelchair, blankets, backpacks and a strange little stuffed animal, a baby ostrich with purple fluffs.

Purple has always been her color of choice, the one that caught her eye. And if it had sparkles? Oh yeah.

Bright pinks and greens have had their opportunity to shine, but there was always purple.

Deep maroons adorned various basketball uniforms and headbands, both high school and college, like the blood that surged through the heart of a warrior, a champion. But then, there was purple.

When the crayon wore out, was broken or lost, it took a mixture of red and blue, a little extra work, but certainly worth the effort.

Reds can be hot like anger, or bright embers in the fireplace, passionate like lipstick or a single long-stemmed rose. Blues can be cold like winter skies, deep like a sapphire still holding ancient mysteries, or calm like Caribbean waters gently rolling onto white sand.

But purple? It’s a wonderful mixture of both, not lukewarm middle ground, but intensity in all shades of the spectrum.

Purple is life.

Those who embrace it revel in the whimsy of creativity, the freedom of not being confined in a box of reds or blues, embracing all the colors of a prism. They see the world as it truly is, intentional brushstrokes of the Almighty into the splendor we too often overlook.

My world is rigidly black or white and I question the grays. But in this world of reds and blues, there is purple, the best of both (or the worse).

Traditionally, purple represented royalty or kingship. Purples were very expensive textiles reserved only for the select few.

The Passion and Precious Blood of Jesus ran red. Heaven and His Divinity are blue, as in a clear sky. Purple was the robe they put on Jesus to mock Him, but their adornment was truer than they could’ve imagined. Though meant to ridicule, they placed a kingly robe and a crown (even of thorns) on THE KING.

Purple is the bridge between earth and heaven, offered to all, reserved for the select few who choose to follow. It was the most expensive, costing Jesus all He was on this side of heaven.

We should embrace the purples in our lives, the lavender, the lilac, the violet, and every shade in between.

And embrace the purple of royalty, being children of God, the one true and Almighty King.

May His Name be forever praised.

Amen …