Before I pronounce a painting complete, I grab my tubes of metallic gold, silver, or copper along with black, navy blue, deep purple, and other very dark hues. This is the step that really brings the painting to life. Adding the very light reflective elements and the very dark tones makes the painting sing.
Both highlights and lowlights provide much needed contrast in a painting. They support and enhance the mid-tone hues that create most of the piece. The contrast they provide shapes and deepens the painting, but the mid-tones carry it.
Light hues like yellow, pink, and light blue appear even lighter when set against a lowlight. Dark hues like burgundy, forest green, or purple are deepened in contrast to a metallic highlight. The same could be said about the pain and the joy that we experience as children of God. Painful times heighten our awareness of joy and sweeten it. Memories of joy can make the valleys of pain more bearable.
Much of life is experienced in the more prevalent mid-tones. Daily schedules of school, work, and church are among the everyday, even mundane, activities we address. Highlights of miraculous healing, restored relationships, or a promotion can break into the mundane schedules of life to bring mountaintop, or highlight, moments. The opposite is true as well. There are times when the loss of a job, a loved one, or health weighs on us and threatens to bring us down into the darkness of despair during a season of lowlight experiences. The times of highs and lows help to shape and deepen the painting we call life.
As we live out who we were created to be and do what we were created to do, we will always walk through best and worst times.
Psalm 84 talks about the pilgrimage—the journey—to the temple. It is unclear whether verse 6 speaks of a literal place or a figurative spot sojourners must go through when it refers to the valley of Baca.
Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring;
The early rain also covers it with blessings.
They go from strength to strength,
Every one of them appears before God in Zion. Psalm 84:6–7
“Baca” can be translated as “weeping.” In a spiritual sense, the metaphor implies that we all will go through valleys of weeping during our sojourn on this earth. Let’s call these valleys the lowlight times of our lives. The beauty of these times is that hope and even joy—highlight emotions—can be found in the valley. Even in the lowlight times of our lives, God brings His highlight of love, peace, and joy.
I am struck by the notion that passing through the valley of weeping creates a spring—”they make it a spring.” The image my mind sees is of my tears flooding the valley that I am walking through. There in the valley, God uses my tears to water and nourish the ground beneath my feet.
We need both the sparkle of highlights and the depth of lowlights to make our lives richer. We appreciate the mid-tones of life when contrasted with our lows. We are more able to recognize and celebrate the highlights of life when we have been through the valley that lowlight seasons bring. We are called to the pilgrimage of meeting God in Zion each and every day—in the lowlight times, the mid-tone days, and the mountaintop highlighted experiences.
Back at my easel, I am careful not to add too much of either the highlights or the lowlights. The painted image is created in the mid-tones of my palette. The same is true in our life. Neither our darkest nor our brightest moments define our life.
Both the highlights and the lowlights in our lives, like in my paintings, are what bring depth and beauty to our stories. Let’s allow the Lord to meet us wherever we are in our journey. He is with us through it all—the highlights, the lowlights, and the mid-tones.