Life Is Like A Box Of Crayons...

You never know what it's gonna be like... til ya color it! I used to pick purple first. Purple is quite a kingly color. I liked the smell of purple. It smelled so purple to me. When I had a new color book... I used to shade the pictures in with lights and darks of the same shade. If you were to compare my color books with other kids' books... mine would look like a "Disney" cartoon as compare to something not from "Disney". I loved all of the different shades. They all smelled so different. (Not really... but... they did... ya know?) Sometimes I used to color really really light... and I always tried to stay in the lines... I hated my pages being messy. Once in a while I would get a new color book and start from the front page... to the next... to the next... and so on. Sometimes I would not look at the other pages when I got one... so that I would be surprised when I turned the page to see what I got to color next. I remember always wanting the BIG BOX of 64 Crayola crayons with the sharpener in the back. I always felt just a little disappointed when my mama couldn't afford one of those kinds. Sometimes they weren't always even Crayola brand. But nevertheless... she always made sure I at least had a new box of AT LEAST 24. I bought color books clear up until my teenage years... then it kind of lost it's luster to me... but I would always look at them when I went shopping. Then I had a kid. And the joy of buying color books started all over again. I always made sure (for the longest time) that she had a really good sized box of crayons. I always wanted to be the one to open them first. I actually used to want to use them first. (and through the years... The smell never changed!) I used to color with Hannah. She would let me pick the pages I wanted to color. I would show her how to color lightly... and keep all the crayon marks going in the same direction... and how to shade. I used to sign my pages... "To Hannah... Love Mommy". I have no clue where all of those books made it to. Alot of them went into the garbage... some were ripped apart and hung in various places for all to see. After a while... I stopped buying them for her all together. Then... when she would have money from birthday gifts... or from allowance... she would buy her own color books. She would ask me to color with her. Sometimes I would... sometimes I didn't feel like it. I enjoy thinking back on my color book years. Everything I saw was in rainbow form. Pure and perfect. Beautiful. As I got older... the luster of the world and it's rainbow of colors kind of faded. Things in life became less intense in color... and more intense in other ways. I forgot about how much joy came in one of those little green and yellow boxes. How much innocence. How much fun and excitement. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those days. It took me a long time to see the rainbow of colors in the world again. But I have come to realize that your whole life is like a great big coloring book. It has all kinds of really cool blank pages. How you choose to apply the color is up to you. I think that God has a really big box of crayons! He has the ultimate mega huge variety pack. Have you ever stopped to look at how wonderful he keeps his colors between the lines? Everything is so perfect. The colors are so deep and rich. And... there are so many hues to each one. God is the "master" and his "piece/peace" is the earth and everything in it. We are created in his image... imagine that! I now appreciate more than ever what wonderful things God has created for me to enjoy.