It’s not that I’m colorblind; I’m just indifferent to color. Red, blue and yellow are all the same to me.
This has, on many occasions, challenged the Gracious Mistress of the Parochial House, who is very meticulous when it comes to describing anything or anyone.
When remodeling my office in the parsonage, my wife asked, “What color would you like the walls painted?”
That sounds like a good question to ask, but it’s not just any question to ask if you know me.
“I don’t care about the color. Whatever you think is best is fine with me.”
Thinking that he had solved the problem, I felt at ease, but his answer made me realize that the problem had not been solved.
“It’s your office,” he said, “what color would you like the walls to be painted?” With that, she looked at me with a very sociable smile, which is contagious to me.
Knowing he wouldn’t stop until he got an answer from me, I told him, “Paint the walls purple.”
As far as I was concerned, the color of the walls didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to be studying the walls when I was in my study.
Looking at me for a moment, he finally said, “Okay, I’ll paint it white.”
I am beginning to learn to solve problems in our house.
Color doesn’t mean much to me. When I get dressed on Sunday morning, my wife is very concerned that my tie matches my suit and that my suit matches my shoes in terms of color.
For me, the only thing that counts is, does it fit?
It finally came down on me the other day. We were doing our final shopping for Christmas and I still had a couple of gifts to buy and she had a shopping cart full of gifts to buy.
We were about to finish when I remembered a gift that I wanted to receive and had completely forgotten about. So I asked my wife, who was the driver at the time, if she could stop at a store so I could go inside and get my last Christmas present. He was almost exhausted, but this was the end.
He parked in the parking lot, and when I got out, I said, “I won’t be long.”
I didn’t pay attention to the parking lot when I left the car and entered the store. I have no reason to go through it and assess every vehicle in that lot. The only thing on my mind was to get in, buy my gift, get out, get back in the car and go home.
I know that the car my wife has is red. That’s as far as I can get with that. So when I came out of the shopping store, I was looking for a red car.
It seemed like an easy thing to do, but as I looked around the parking lot, there must be thousands of red cars. Not quite, but it seemed so. From my perspective, they all looked alike. I couldn’t remember what kind of coz my wife had, just that it was red. The fact that she remembered it was red was something.
I went to the first red car, no one was there and the doors were locked so I went to several others. I couldn’t find the Graceful Mistress of the parsonage. I was almost tempted to phone to report a missing person; maybe the police could find her better than me.
I had my cell phone with me and thought I’d call her to find out where she was. But if she did, I would have to live with it for the rest of my life. You know how that is!
Deciding to continue my search, I looked at one red car after another and couldn’t find her anywhere. Maybe I took too long shopping and she got tired of waiting and went home.
I’m thinking of putting a little white flag on top of your car’s antenna so you can at least find it that way. But he had to find her first.
Then I heard the sound of a horn, I looked down the line and there was a hand outside the window waving at me. So, there she was in plain sight.
I was a little exasperated when I got to the car, but then it got a little worse. He was playing a joke on me. As soon as I walked into the store, he moved his car. There was no chance he would find it under the circumstances.
When I got to the car, she was laughing hysterically and between giggles she said, “Gotcha.”
I had to admit that she caught me this time. Even if she could have remembered what kind of cause it was, it wasn’t where she expected it to be. I don’t think she’ll ever live through this.
As we drove home, she was sitting in the driver’s side smiling while I was sitting in the passenger side thinking. A verse of Scripture came to mind. “The ear that hears and the eye that sees, both the Lord made” (Proverbs 20:12).
What I have learned in my life is that listening and seeing are crucial elements in every relationship.