Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: It's a Colorful World (12/03/09)
-
TITLE: God's Colorful Imagination | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marlene Bonney
12/07/09 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
“I’ll manage, the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise!” he’d say to anyone offering assistance.
As he walked, the man daydreamed of yesteryears when his gait was strong and his hair thick and wavy. It was easier to travel then, his vigor up to any obstacle or challenge . . .
“Hey, mister, how about some flowers from the Calvary Road?” a little girl by the side of the road interrupted his reverie.
“Don’t mind if I do, child. Here, keep the change. Buy yourself something pretty with it, mind you!”
Her eyes grew larger with each coin spilling into her apron pocket and she rewarded the man with a sweet smile that somehow reminded him of his late wife.
Georgio, with a little wave, continued his journey, the flowers pulled through the satchel handles. A couple of miles further, he stopped to rest, sitting down on a large rock under a spindly tree. He wiped his damp brow with his red bandana. Yes, this would be his final trek.
All over the world he had been, to see and experience what most of us only dream of. His quest was to invent colors on canvas to emulate the colors in nature. Sometimes he got it perfect—like the red dwarf powder puff flower in India. It took him two weeks and repeated visits to the flower gardens there to mix his palette paints in the exact shade. Another time, he worked for months to perfect a particular shadow of green needle grass in the Gobi Desert.
His thirst for inventing and naming these pigments could not be quenched anymore than a waterfall’s rivers. His life’s work was not a labor for money or notoriety but one borne of love, sacrifice and devotion. Many years previous, Georgio had been blind from a brain injury. Those two years of darkness were almost his undoing, his soul as empty and forlorn as an empty bird’s nest. Finally, after wallowing in self-pity that threatened to drown him, he had reached up to Jesus, Who lifted him up from grief and despondency to a Power greater than himself. And, wonder, of wonders, the next morning upon awakening, Georgio could see again!! So began a journey of purpose planted in his heart by the One Who saved him—spiritually and physically. The colors surrounding him became more vivid; each shade taking on a character of it’s own and creating in him a hunger to find every nuance of every tint in existence.
Not long after, Georgio was commissioned by a fledgling artist to mix and match colors into exact shade replicas of colors all over the world, which turned into decades of commitment. From the shamrocks of Ireland to the Norwegian pale yellows of the kusymre flower . . . From the red-stoned pyramids in Egypt to Spain’s Pyrenees mountains to capture the translucent hues of the highest waterfall in Europe . . . From the varied tinctures of the African gray parrot to the plethora of reds and oranges in Japan’s momiji (maple) trees . . . From the Black Forest of Germany to painted cave art in Zambia . . . From the Island of Malta’s Paradise Bay to catch multiple colors of the Mediterranean Sea . . . Along with the bright oranges and yellows of Iceland’s puffins and America’s tulip festivals promoting special variances of pinks and lavenders.
And lastly, the Holy Land--to walk where Jesus walked, and to copy vegetation colors . . .
The middle-aged unknown artist handcrafted the final red glass piece, inserting it into the cross-shaped center space of the massive stained-glass window to represent God’s creation of the universe in full splendorous colors . . .
Georgio saw the results of his years’ labor in this museum piece of art. He stood in awe, trying to recall each shade and where he had found it as he viewed the masterpiece. The placard beside the window read, “God Speaks” by An Anonymous Admirer. But on the corner of the piece of art was etched the following: “Georgio’s Rendition of Colors by God.”
People from all nations came to this Universal Museum to view the window, where reflected lights and shadows from the sun and moon and stars cascaded through the stained-glass window for all to see.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
As a beginner writer,I am wondering more about your MC. How did he get to all those places? How had he attained the brain injury? How did he overcome?
Is this based on a true story?