Summary: Whenever I prepare an Easter sermon, I always think way too hard about what it is I'm going to say. And today was no different. As my mind went in many different directions, I began to wonder just how our minds work anyway. Our minds are so complex and mysterious. For many of us, Christianity, our faith, even the person of Jesus himself, is really a heady exercise. We think very hard about faith, and perhaps sometimes, our minds can get in the way. What we think we see in the world is only really what our brains allow us to perceive. Our brains are trained from an early age to make assumptions about the world, to perceive the world in particular ways, like shorthand that allows us to function at efficient and productive levels. When we encounter something new, something we don't understand, we often find ourselves a bit confused. And when an entirely new way of being is presented to us, it's difficult to understand that new world at all. When I was in college, I remember learning about a small island in Micronesia, northeast of Australia, named Pingelap. Although every indigenous group is unique, the people on this tiny island of Pingelap are exceptional because so many of them are colorblind. By some estimates, only one in every 40,000 people around the world are colorblind, but on this tiny island of Pingelap, one in ten are colorblind. Imagine what it would be like to live without the breadth of color most of us experience. The world would look like a very different place. Rather than seeing the shocking differences between muted pastels and bright fluorescents, we would see very subtle shifts in tones and textures. And, as scientists discovered, when enough colorblind people shared life together, such as those on Pingelap, a new visual culture actually developed. Scientists discovered that those who are colorblind created their own artistic culture, and in some cases, they were able to create patterns on canvas and with cloth that only they could see. In other words, this group of people cannot see what we take for granted - the vibrancy of colors all around us. Yet because of their colorblindness, they saw beauty in new and creative ways - ways in which those of us who see color cannot appreciate.[i]
