Complementary Lesson

There's a rather neat "trick" in painting. If you need to tone down a color so it doesn't look so raw and hard, you mix in a touch of its complement, the color that is sitting opposite on the color wheel. And if an area is looking too dull, nothing will brighten it up like placing a small daub of its complement nearby. Yellows appear yellower with a touch of purple next door, greens sing with a dot of red at hand, and orange will "call out of the blue." So, either mixed with or sitting beside, complements add strength and depth; they provide harmony and balance.

It seems to me this is also evident in marriages. People seek someone who complements their own personality, for we need those who will add their strengths to our own weaknesses. Coupled together there is now a wholeness, a completeness, a vividness that cannot be achieved alone. It takes all the "opposites" on the wheel to complete the spectrum - with color, with people. There's a very close word origin between complement and complete, between whole and holy.

Surely the human and the divine are complements of the highest order. God is whole, perfect, complete in and of Himself. We're not. So, there is no doubt about our needing God, yet perhaps He even needs us! To carry on his work in this world there must be arms to hug, eyes to see, hands to heal, and hearts to love. And while we have "all fallen short of the glory of God," this shortfall can be made up for, to some degree, by trying to stay in harmony and balance with our Maker. Even a small "touch of God" added to us can take the raw edge off, and with Him close at hand, we, too, may even attain a certain vividness.

Romans 3.23 - All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Psalm 28.8 - The Lord is the strength of his people.

2 Timothy 3.17 - All scripture is inspired by God...that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Colossians 2.10 - And you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Romans 12.4 - Just as there are many parts of our bodies, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of it, and it takes each one of us to make it complete, for we all have different work to do.

1 John 2.1 - His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good, and who pleases God completely.

Matthew 9.21 - She said within herself, if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

Luke 17.19 - Thy faith has made thee whole.