From Black and White to Technicolor

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 

I love colors. That’s the way God made me, and I’m thankful for that passion for fashion as well as the way colors move me. The distinction of colors used in The Wizard of Oz also moved me as I understood it to signify the different seasons in our lives. Sure, we have phases in life where our reality is the starkness of black and white, but once we come into an incredible relationship with Jesus Christ, there is a technicolor explosion of understanding God’s truth.

Are you living in a world where the words others speak over you remove God’s beautiful colors from your life? Dorothy was similar in that she allowed people in her life to speak the “color” right out of her potential for joy. Even the people closest to Dorothy were anxious to point out her shortcomings. Someone told her she needed to use her brain to confront the problem she was running from. Another person said she just needed to have courage. And finally, her aunt pointed out that she was always worrying about something that was really nothing. 

Isn’t that like most of us? We get anxious over everything, yet pray about nothing. What mattered more than Dorothy’s point being pondered was her process for approaching it. She allowed negative words to occupy her spirit and turn her colorful potential into a drab black-and-white reality. Dorothy, just like all of us, has a decision to make. How we approach those decisions can be just as important as the decision itself. 

She, like we, face many opportunities to make decisions that will affect our internal reality. In her process of seeking truth, Dorothy begins to talk about a place where no trouble exists but that you couldn’t get to with a boat or a plane. It was a place somewhere far away. It was a place somewhere over the rainbow. 

I believe that “somewhere over the rainbow” signifies a promise she wanted to see come to pass. When I hear that song, I think about the cross. As believers, we want to see certain promises come to pass in our lives too. In fact, the life that God desires for each of us to have here on earth only comes by way of His promises. And His promises are somewhere over the rainbow, meaning they are in the heavenlies—but we have access to pull them down into our current situations. Through the power of prayer, the kingdom of God is at hand. And we have full access!

Call to action

What are you worried about? Are you willing to give it to God and pull down the promises of heaven through faithful prayer?