Sacred Space and Time: Hues of Red

It was the season opening for the local folk museum and use of the old stone church from the Middle Ages. The little church house was packed. Walls as thick as a yard did not let much heat in, but strong light beams shone through the rounded windows. I looked t many things this morning, since I had a place at an extra bench way in the back. I looked at small boys – a handful of them – moving about in the nave, all dressed up for the celebration of baptism of a younger sibling, all too young to be kept quiet.

There is a new priest, an interim, and I am not used to him. He does the task well, but still, to me he is a stranger in my sacred space. I suppose I will get used to him.

I looked at the altarpiece and the altar ring; but this time it was not the symbolism, the semantic meaning of words; it was not the art of interpretation which caught me. It was the hues of red.

Warm, earthy red paint created a sense of being close to the earth, being real, and yet being in the sacred space: where heaven and earth meet, as God is there, in our midst.

We are so quick to think rational meaning, concepts of mind – but as I sat in the old room, feeling the warmth of many bodies, it was not the symbolic meaning of the colour red I cherished; it was the simple being there in front of it, as something which enhanced my perception of life. Aesthetics is vital to the enjoyment of life.

There is a certain reddish brown, a gentle earthy red colour I see in the old décor of the country, together with a grayish green-blue we call ‘bondeblå’,farmers’ blue.

It was a comforting sight this morning. In the frame of the image I beheld was a small baptismal font, a wooden piece decorated in many colours, but blending in perfectly.

As the priest was preparing for the baptism of a little girl, the family joined – must be cousins, I thought, for I counted six boys in early preschool age, and one older sister – a beautiful child who did the major Scripture readings for the event. I couldn’t help being amused at the little guys - who were bouncy and curious, and precious.

In hues of red, we belong. As earthlings, we live and cherish this time on earth, be it difficult or accomplished. I am heaven bound; and although an earthling, I belong to the Kingdom of God. Perhaps it was this dual belonging I sensed this morning, not through my intellect, but more direct: in the colours of the church interior.

Beauty is found everywhere. A streak of light enhances any ordinary thing. Look at it next time; it is a touch of the Master’s hand.