Life in Full Color
Life in Full Color
The Gospel restores what sin has faded.
Did you ever have one of those Magic Ink coloring books when you were a kid? The pages were dull and lifeless until you ran a special marker over them. The true picture was hidden beneath a chemical coating, and that one special marker revealed the full beauty of the artist’s original design.
It’s an imperfect gospel analogy, but I love the Magic Ink imagery of something restoring the color and vibrancy that was always made to be there.
C.S. Lewis illustrates this same idea beautifully in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When Aslan, the Christ character, returns to Narnia, winter begins turning to spring. The frozen land begins to thaw. Color returns. Life returns. Aslan’s presence melts the snow and reveals the warmth and beauty of the way Narnia was meant to be.
A Glimpse of the World as it Should Be
This reminds me of the way Jesus moved through the world. Everywhere He went, people caught glimpses of creation being restored to what God intended it to be. Look at Matthew 9:35:
“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.”
Wherever Jesus went, the way things were designed to be began breaking into the way things actually were. Sickness was healed. Demons were cast out. The right understanding of God and the world was proclaimed.
Sin fractured creation, but Jesus came to restore what had been broken and bring the reality of heaven back to earth. He came to reconnect the dots.
So as Jesus moved through the community, the color and vibrancy of the way things were always meant to be began to spring back to life again. The beauty of Genesis 1 began pushing back against the fallenness of Genesis 3. This restoration began with Jesus’ first coming and will be completed at His second coming.
Partnership with Jesus
In the meantime, you and I are called to be His representatives in the already-but-not-yet. Because Christ lives in us, He now works through us to bring a little taste of the full color of God’s Kingdom into the sin-brokenness of this world.
What would it look like if every room you entered became a place where people caught a glimpse of the world as God intended it to be?
Maybe that’s exactly why God has you where you are.
Erik Cooper
Erik began his career in the business world before spending twelve years in full-time ministry, serving on staff at a large suburban church and later as a church planter in downtown Indianapolis. Today, he serves as the President of a family of business-oriented nonprofit organizations that work together to mobilize the marketplace to make Jesus known in the world. He leads The Stone Table, which equips marketplace believers and invests in global mission initiatives, and Community Reinvestment Foundation, a nonprofit real estate company providing high-quality affordable housing in Indiana and directing its profits to missions through The Stone Table.
