Have you ever looked at paint samples? Those dinky squares of colors in paint stores?

You decide on teal green and take a gallon home to paint a room. Once on the wall, you want to gag. Returning to the store and paint samples, you select another color with caution.

Deciding on emerald green, you get another gallon of paint, go home to paint, and discover, ah, yes, lovely. In fact, the color is lovelier than imagined because it sets off the artwork given to you by Uncle Micheal.

This could be called “simultaneous contrast.”

The true hue of the emerald green was brought out when added to the room and placed next to the artwork. The simultaneous contrast gave the color real tone and generates appreciation.

Contrasts are a part of life. However, I’m cautious how what kind of conclusions those contrasts lead to.

Just because the emerald green generated appreciation doesn’t mean the teal green is bad. This thought process seeps into other areas of life and one can conclude it must have sickness in order to really appreciate health.

Not so.

Suffering happens but we don’t have to make it a reality or cause. God is the only cause and effect.

God created only goodness. There is nothing wrong with comparing and contrasting, but we can stay on the side of Good, when we contrast beauty, honesty, health, with one another to bring out their infinite hues.

From 21st Century Science and Health, “Let’s compare and contrast a verse, first from the King James Version, “And the Lord said My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.” Now from the New Revised Standard Version, “Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh.” We can interpret this today to mean, And the Lord said, My spirit shall not be humbled in human beings, seeing in their error they are but flesh. Notice, the different perspectives offer a clearer view of spiritual facts. Even though the thought of a non-fleshly person seems transcendental, we are image, idea, and this deeper thought or faith will not be humbled, or hidden, by error.”

From 21st Century Science and Health, “Beauty is a thing of life. It dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the living God in expression, form, outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal with countless hues. It is Love that pours in the warm sunbeam, arches the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with starry gems, and covers the earth with loveliness.”