I was walking my dog (title picture) praying with my concerns for others and God told me something. One phrase. “Look at the colors”. So here are the exact places I stopped and “looked at the colors”. Your job is to identify all of the colors you see in each picture.
I see what, a pink red, light greens, dark greens, some whitish purples in the faded flowers, shadow greys and blackish, blue sky, a yellow orange leaf… you see more colors? What colors?
What about for this one? What colors do you see? Go through the rest of this real life walk God took me on with my dog and say out loud the colors that are present even if it is just in a small area, and make sure you call out the shadow made colors as well. The variation in the colors and coloring too, as there is more than one type of green.
God tugged a verse then on my heart, Romans 1:20… He than said contrast the two, and my own very history unfolded in front of my eyes in a flashback.
In high school biology, my teacher gave us an assignment that felt completely
ridiculous at the time. Every single week, we had to look at the exact same
preserved, dead fish in a jar and write down what we saw.
The first week was easy. I wrote down the basics: it’s stiff, it’s pale, it smells like
chemicals, and it has a cloudy eye. I closed my notebook thinking, “I’m done.
There is absolutely nothing else to see here. What am I supposed to write next
week?” “KEEP LOOKING!”, my extension program’s teacher very sternly
commanded for the allotted time of ten minutes I was mandatorily mandated to
do this. But my teacher knew something I didn’t. The fish wasn’t going to
change, but my eyes were.
By week two I sat down already given up. I had to right something, maybe make
up something? No he would catch that easily, he is way too attentive. I then
looked at it from standing up in a stretch instead of stirring down. “What!? There
was this perfect, neat grid of tiny overlapping scales and the distinct lateral line
running down its side. I could write about that. Yes, Thank you God!
By week three I had a plan. Look at it as an artist. I know it sounds silly but I saw
it! I saw the stunning symmetry—the left and right fins matched each other down
to the smallest bump.
By week four, I was noticing the tiny folds inside its jaw and the delicate, pale pink
combs hidden underneath the gill cover.
Nothing changed about that fish over those four weeks. The object stayed exactly
the same, but my capacity to see it expanded. I moved from a shallow, surface
glance to seeing a masterpiece of intricate design.
The Spiritual Grayscale
Many of us walk through life, or walk into a counselor’s office, looking at the world
the way I looked at that fish in week one. We take a quick, superficial glance at
our circumstances, our pain, or even at God Himself, and we think, “I already know
what’s here. It’s cold, it’s flat, and it’s empty.”
We live our lives in a spiritual grayscale.
In a physical world without color, everything bleeds into the same dull shade of
gray. You can’t spot the red berries hidden in the green leaves, meaning you miss
the nourishment right in front of you. Dangerous predators blend perfectly into the
rocks, leaving you blind to impending traps. You look at a sunset or a sunrise, and
the flat tones stir absolutely no emotion or wonder in your soul.
Living in grayscale doesn’t mean the color isn’t there; it means you are functionally
blind to it.
Romans 1:20 and the Canvas of Creation
This is exactly what the Apostle Paul addresses in Romans 1:20 (NKJV):
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so
that they are without excuse.”
Notice what Paul is saying: God’s character, His power, and His beauty are not
hidden. They are “clearly seen” (testable) and “understood” (logical) through the
things He has made. God did not create a flat, grayscale universe. He flooded it
with the vibrant, undeniable “colors” of His divine nature.
When we claim we cannot see God, or when we look at our trials and see only
hopeless gray, the problem is never a lack of evidence from the Creator. The
problem is our eyes. Like my first week in biology class, we are rushing past the
details, skimming the surface, and filtering out the brilliant canvas of His glory.
The goal of our time together today is to slow down, look closer, and take off the
grayscale glasses. Just like staring at that preserved fish until the hidden patterns
popped out, we need to train our hearts to see the vibrant color of God’s presence,
power, and design in the middle of our everyday lives.
Why is being able to see in color better for people than if everything was a
greyscale? what are the cause and effect benefits?
Seeing in color helps humans find food, spot danger, and read emotions fast.
Color adds rich signals to our eyes. This extra detail makes daily life safer and
easier than living in a black-and-white world:
Survival and Safety
Spot food: Spot red fruit in green trees.
See danger: See venomous snakes or toxic bugs.
Read health: Notice pale skin or a rash.
Mind and Mood
Feel emotions: Feel warmth from red or calm from blue.
Find things: Sort objects in a messy room fast.
Learn better: Remember pictures and signs with more ease.
So if the world was all grayscale, would each of these points be countered?
Yes, a grayscale world directly counters or severely weakens each of these
benefits. Without color, your brain loses its fastest shortcut for sorting visual
information.
Here is how each point changes in a black-and-white world:
Survival and Safety Countered
Camouflaged food: Red berries and green leaves often share the exact same
brightness (luminance). They would blend into the same shade of gray, making
foraging slow and difficult.
Hidden danger: A brightly colored venomous snake would blend perfectly into
the rocks or grass, removing nature’s warning signs.
Missed health cues: Skin changes like a red rash, sunburn, or a sudden pale
loss of color become nearly impossible to see early.
Mind and Mood Countered
Dulled emotions: You lose the psychological impact of color. The mood boost of
a bright yellow sun or the calming effect of blue water vanishes into flat gray
tones.
Slow visual searching: Finding your keys on a messy table takes longer. Your
eyes have to scan shapes and textures one by one rather than instantly latching
onto a specific color.
Harder learning: Information design fails. Traffic lights, maps, and warning signs
become confusing when you cannot use color to organize data quickly.
In biblical counseling, this grayscale analogy serves as a powerful object lesson, a
counseling session bridge physical sight with spiritual reality.
1. The Presentation Concept: Spiritual Color-Blindness
In counseling, people often arrive experiencing life in “grayscale”—numb,
overwhelmed, or blind to God’s presence due to suffering or sin. You can use the
color analogy to show that God did not create a flat, mechanical world; He flooded
it with “color” (His attributes) so that He is impossible to miss.
2. The Cause and Effect Application (Romans 1:20)
The “Color” is God’s Glory: Just as physical color is woven into light to make
creation visible and beautiful, God’s “invisible attributes” (His kindness, justice,
power, and beauty) are woven into the fabric of daily life.
The “Grayscale” is Suppression: Romans 1:21 explains that humanity “suppressed
the truth.” In counseling, this is like a person putting on grayscale glasses. They
look at a sunset, a child’s birth, or a moment of grace and see only random,
meaningless gray. They see the thing, but they actively filter out the Creator.
The “Without Excuse” Reality: If a person stands in front of a vibrant red rose and
claims it is gray, the problem is not the rose; it is their eyes. Romans 1:20 states
God’s glory is “clearly seen.” Man’s spiritual grayscale is not a lack of evidence
from God, but a functional rejection of the obvious.
3. Counseling Takeaways (Moving from Gray to Color)
Re-training the Eyes: Biblical counseling helps the heart “see in color” again. It
pushes the person to stop looking at their trials in flat, hopeless tones and start
looking for the vibrant evidence of God’s “eternal power and Godhead” right in the
middle of their pain.
Restoring Gratitude: Romans 1 notes that the slide into darkness begins when
people stop glorifying God and giving thanks. Forcing oneself to notice the “color”
(God’s daily graces) breaks the grayscale of depression and anxiety.
Your homework is to find the color in the world around you and note the colors
reflecting back on Romans 1:20-21.
Memorize Romans 1:20-21, ”20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
The Cravings
“I cannot hear God! I cannot see God!!” This is a big topic. Many warnings but the one warning focus I want to touch on right now is a grey scale focus. Specifically when you obsess over God needing to do something only one way. You do not want to take God’s color away by obsessing over God only allowed to function in but only one aspect, one way to answer you or others.
Your obsession with pushing your craving for a certain way can get dangerous even entering into the point of going through withdrawals like a drug addict. Your demands get high and your ability to see becomes low, so since blind start building up stress to vent or even blame at others and sometimes even God. If you get to this point God will deem this way not good nor safe for you anymore, Psalm 119:68, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 100:5, Psalm 145:9, Nahum 1:7, James 1:17. Withdrawals because you no longer are able to see nor feel His loving hugs through His other aspects used.
Is He gone from me? No. You just faded the color from your life into a black and white no longer seeing Him at all since He is moving in the color, not only just that one once in a while means of interaction you are demanding. If this is happening with you, James 1 speaks more into this right here: https://vlgroup.org/james-119-27-part-6-your-religion-is-useless/
