“Mom, you only got solid colors. They’re boring. I need to create a beautiful painting. How in the world can I do it with a boring white or blue?
“My dear, the beautiful colors come from a mix of ordinary colors. You see, two ordinary colors standing alone remain ordinary. But, when they are combined they become a beautiful color!”
We were all created as what seems to be ordinary humans. We are tied down by human limitations. We aren’t angels. We aren’t super colorful. We have struggles and challenges that tend to make us feel ordinary.
But, the truth is we are beautiful. Angles are ordinary.
You see, angels are born to care for others; they don’t know what it means to be selfish. It’s normal for them to be selfless. However for us humans, who know the meaning of selfishness, it is when we choose to be selfless and pass up the opportunity to be selfish, that we achieve beauty!
Some of us have a hard time with this. “It’s hypocrisy!” Yesterday they were ordinary people, thinking about themselves and being selfish. Today they are suddenly going out of their way for others – it’s hypocritical!
No, it’s beautiful.
For it is the ordinary becoming the extraordinary, the individual colors joining together to create a dazzling new color, surpassing what each color added on its own.
Does this message sound familiar? It is the message of leaving Egypt.
We all have a part of ourselves in “slavery”. We are tied down and addicted to certain behavior patterns. However, we each have the ability to simply pass it over, to leave behind that cycle of slavery and to embrace change and start as a new free person!
It isn’t hypocritical when we change our behavior, and it certainly isn’t ordinary. When we change ourselves, we’re tapping into our inherent ability to rise above our challenges and be free.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendy
