Homeward Bound Theological Reflections on the Color Orange By Heather

We have reached Delhi that Capital of India and our final destination of this journey. We leave tonight after midnight for home. Hopefully, we will have a short stop in London and arrive in Raleigh on the afternoon of May 26^th. We should be home by Monday night if all goes according to plan. We thank all of you for your support and prayers along the way. We hope to post a few more blog entries from home as we are sure to experience some reverse culture shock. For now, we will leave you with some theological reflections on the color orange.

Not long ago, I was driving home from Campbell and realized that I had seen the sunrise and the sunset along the exact same stretch of road as I traveled to and from school that day. As I looked at the sunset, I began thinking about the color orange and how it was both beautiful and ugly at the same. For example, an orange India mango, a saforn colored flower, and a pumpkin colored sunset are all beautiful expressions of orange. However, orange cones and construction barrels are ugly and often signify danger ahead.

The more I thought about the color orange, I began to realize that orange is a very popular color in India and that India is a place that is simultaneously beautiful and challenging, incredible and harsh, and captivating and painful. I began to realize how much the Christian journey we are all on is also reflected in the color orange.  As we follow Christ there is joy, there is sorrow, there is dancing, there is mourning, there is singing, and there is suffering. The experience of the cross was ugly but the resurrection was beautiful. We experience every shade of orange as followers of Christ.

In the car that night I promised myself and God that I would be on the lookout for experiences that illustrate both the beautiful and ugly side of orange while in India. When we first arrived in Bangalore, I couldn’t help but notice that Westfall’s home was beautifully decorated in soothing soft shades of orange and blue. Here in India, I saw orange trucks, orange signs, orange flowers, orange temples, orange idols, orange saris, and a wide variety of orange fruits just to name a few. One of the most memorable “orange experiences” came as Sajeena our sponsor child told me her favorite color was orange. However, as I walked among the Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists, the orange colored temples, robes, ceremonial fires, tombs, and  mosques slapped me in the face, broke my heart, and stirred my compassion. These “orange experiences” became too numerous to remember so I began taking photos of orange things to document my time here.

The images below illustrate a few of my own “orange experiences” here in India. It has been a beautiful and ugly journey full of hope and hopelessness. However, for me, the pictures below have become far more that just various shades of orange that I saw along the way. Instead, these photos encapsulate my own Christian journey as expressed through the vibrant, warm, soft, sweet, pungent, and shocking shades of orange found in India. As a follower of the Way, I have learned to love the dichotomy that is orange, that is India, and that is the Christian pilgrimage. We sing, we suffer, we dance, we cry, we shout for joy, we mourn, we experience every shade of orange as we seek to follow the footsteps of Jesus whether the path is beautiful or ugly.

 

(I love the photo directly above! I saw it outside of a Mosque and Muslim Burrial Ground. The path from where I was standing looked like an orange cross.)  

 

(NOTE: The photo above is my favorite of the trip. It was taken just today and after I wrote this entry! God is really amazing. He speaks to us in so many ways.)