True Colors of Faith: Orange

God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ --Gen. 9: 12-16

And there you have it: proof that God loves gay people because God put a rainbow in the sky to prove he won't drown us again!

Seriously, God is love. And God's love is given freely without black-out dates, or expirations. And one can feel that love in the core of our creative and sexual beings. Which brings me to the color orange. Again, pulling from the Eastern traditions of the chakras, orange is the second chakra and governs our creative and sexual expression... or creative sexual expression. This would be the place where I see the Church falling down on the job because now we are getting into a place where, let's be honest, there has been a tremendous amount of abuse and misuse of this gift given to us by the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer. Please see all the headlines in recent weeks.
A while back, long before my wake up call, I realized, through listening and contemplating the words in the Song of Solomon, that God has gifted us with our sexuality. It doesn't matter what that sexuality is, be it straight or gay or both. God gave us the ability to be intimate with another so that we don't have to go through this world alone. And, like all things that God has given freely to us as gifts, the expectation is that we will understand that this is a special gift to us, and we are to be wise in how we use it. Looking to the apostle Paul, he notes that the commandments that pertain to do not murder, do not covet, do not steal... all fall under the commandment Christ gave to "love one another." In loving, you do not use another person as a means to an end. That's how I take the message of our sexuality as well. Like all things, we are to see the Christ in the other person, and treat them with the love, honor, dignity that God has shown us.
The first step of respecting another is learning to respect ourselves, and acceptance of ourselves for who we are. Another reason to come out of the closet. If you are living as if you are straight, you are lying to yourself and to others. If you are attempting to change yourself to be straight... when your natural attraction is to members of your own gender, you are not using the gift God gave you, and you are going to create more hurt for yourself and others in the end.
Take time to tap into the orange energy of creative sexual expression and know that this too, like all things, is God-given for our good use.