Blue

 Like many of you, I’ve been decorating my house for Christmas the past couple of weeks.  I’ve noticed that blue lights seem to go out more frequently.   Every year, it seems I replace more blue lights than any other color.  I like a strand of pure blue lights, but they are quickly overwhelmed by warmer and brighter colors like red and orange.   I think all this, combined with the Blue Christmas Service tradition, got me thinking about the qualities of Blue. 

I read this poem during Blue Christmas service at Good Shepherd UMC on December 22, 2021.

Blue is soft.

Blue is cool.

Blue is elusive.

 

Blue is beautiful when it appears in nature.

 

Blue eyes.

Blue sky.

Blue water.

Blue diamond.

Blue Moon

Blue Spruce

Blueberry

Blue Bird

Blue Jay

Blue Heron

 

Blue commands authority.

.

Blue is the Umpire.

Blue is the Police.

Blue is the Navy 

Blue is Royal

Blue is Advent.

Blue Laws.

Blue Ribbon.

Blue Light Special. 

 

But Blue is also feeling sad and down,

And especially at Christmas, when green and red abound,

This much is true:  It’s hard to be Blue.

 

We’d rather be:

Raging red.

Flaming orange.

Sunny yellow.

Envious green.

Incredulous indigo.

Virtuous violent.

Any Color other than Blue.

 

Blue and I go back a long way.

Blue colored my childhood.

It was the elephant my bedroom

Which was painted light blue.

We didn’t talk about Blue.

But Blue was everywhere.

 

Maybe that's why Blue became my favorite color?

Other Colors always seemed more popular to me.

But I always wanted someone to notice my Blue.

 

Blue helped me survive.

Blue got me through.

But Blue stayed with me.

Long after it should’ve.

Coloring the walls of my life.

     

To this day

Tears are rare to me.     

Strong feelings scare me.

We're all prisms through which God's light shines.

We each have a unique God-given spectrum

We need all our Colors to be fully alive.

Blue is part of who I am—who we are as humans.

But there’s so much more than Blue.

I want to learn to embrace the Rainbow that is me.

 

Events of this past year deepened my Blue.

To a point where I lost sight of other Colors.

I needed some help to see them again.

For some reason, that was hard to admit.

But I’m glad I did.

 

This Christmas

Be true to You.

It’s okay to feel Blue.

 

When the night is long.

And Blue seems all there is.

Remember 

Emmanuel.

God is with us.

Let your Blue Light shine brightly