“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” (Psalm 36:9)

The debate started the moment I came home with the newly-purchased pair of corduroy pants.

I bought them because they looked black, even though the label stated very clearly that the colour was navy.

This is not the first time we’ve had issues with colours when purchasing cords for yours truly.

The most recent incident happened in August 2011, when I bought a pair of what I thought were black cords, well, because they were labelled “black”.

Upon laying her beautiful eyes on them, the appropriately named Sulojana (a word that means beautiful eyes!) suggested that the colour was more like a chocolate mocha brown than black.

As much as I protested that they were indeed black because the label said so, I had to admit that they were no more black than I am white J

This time though, the keen-eyed missus actually agreed with me that these cords were indeed black. We had a good laugh over this company that mislabels colours, ha, ha, ha!

Just to be on the safe side, I decided to get the expert opinion of our excellent seamstress Heather (also a DWOD subscriber…she obviously has good taste in spiritual matters too…lol!) when I took them in to reduce the inseam by an inch.

Is it Black or is it Navy?

Heather proceeded to do the thread test. She took a spool of navy thread and a spool of black thread and compared them to the colour of the cords.

It certainly looked blacker than navy-ish.

I thanked Heather for confirming my suspicion and Sulojana’s conclusion with this scientific test which had a 95% chance of being accurate 19 times out of 20!

This morning was the first opportunity I had to go outside wearing them. Needless to say I made sure I wore black socks and the shirt you see in the accompanying picture with lots of black nestled among the other colours.

A quick check in the mirror revealed that the shirt and cords were indeed perfectly matched as you would expect from a guy with a keen eye for fashion (even if he says so himself!)

After running errands all over town, it was now time to head home. As I lifted up my foot to get back into the car, my eyes spied something shocking.

Horror of horrors, my socks and cords did not match. In the light of the sun, it was pretty obvious that the cords were navy and the socks black.

The manufacturer’s label had been right all along (this time anyway). In the artificial lighting of the store and the dim lighting of our closet, it had appeared black. Appearances can be deceiving though, can they not?

The Lord started to speak to me through this experience.

He pointed out how the light in which we view ourselves and others can radically alter our perception.

It could be an artificial light, a human filter that prevents us from seeing as we ought to.

Our standards of comparison are not entirely reliable either, are they? In comparison to another we may look OK even when we are not.

It is only when we see ourselves in the light of the Son that we truly see ourselves as who we really are.

And, in the end, His is the only light that really matters, amen?