Nuance: Maybe everything isn’t so black and white

July 23, 2021

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Aren't we all just asking this, of everyone about everything?

When everything is black and white, when everything is binary, it is so tempting for each of us to be the one that is right and pure and everyone else is wrong and evil.

Might our humanity be more in need of nuance?

Having nuance in how we deal with one another is a commitment to see the subtle but profound differences we all have, and to allow for those difference to be delicately weighed and measured. It is allowing for more than two categories of thought or classification. The color red objectively exists, but it also comes in a multitude of shades from the darkest blood to the most delicate pink. These differences literally make the picture of life we see more rich and beautiful. As much as I love a Crayola colored picture from my child, I objectively know that a masterful painting has the power to visually communicate more.

Nuance says, there is more to the story. more to my story, more to your story. Looking for the nooks and crannies of nuance means that I am not content with the surface level assessment. I want to know more: more about you, more about your situation. Searching for nuance sets me up to also search for hope and redemption. The hard thing that just happened, the way you hurt me, is not the only dimension to this story. You are more than one action. And your one action is multi dimensional anyway.

Seeing and appreciating nuance is a slow patient process. It is incarnational, and best done in the four dimensional relating that happens with friendship in person. No wonder, this year, as we have been cut off from so much of that, we are no longer seeing the nuanced perspectives of our friends, family and neighbors. It's like we have emotional cataracts and can no longer see whole shades of color, and everything is dull and difficult.

Here is where the good news of Jesus can remove the scales from our eyes, and help us to see one another more fully, more fearfully, and more wonderfully made. Here is where the Holy Spirit can help us see and discern situations for beyond the face value, and have supernatural insight and wisdom. Spiritual, regenerated eyes have the possibility of seeing beyond worldly values, powers, and priorities, and seeing how much more there is to each one of us.

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