At training camp when our squad was split into teams we were given two assignments. The first was to make a memory and the second was to give our team a name. My team of 6 amazing women easily accomplished the first assignment by impulsively deciding to get nose piercings. The second assignment, team name, was handled less impulsively. We decided to call our group Team Blue Sky.
I had a hunch that there was a deeper meaning to our team name then we had origninally anticipated starting with the answer to a question…
Why is the sky blue?
The scientific answer creates a metaphor for what I believe God wants for our team as we give up a year of our lives to follow him into the nations in 2011.
Light is made up of a spectrum of colours and the colours at the red end of the spectrum have wider wave lengths than those at the blue-violet end of the spectrum.
Light travels through space in a straight line as long as nothing disturbs it. As light bumps into a bit of dust or a gas molecule what happens to the light depends on the wave length of the light and the size of the thing it hits.
Dust particles and water droplets are much larger than the wavelength of visible light. When light hits them it gets reflected in different directions. The reflected light is all affected in the same way and appears white because it still contains all of the same colors therefore we see a grey sky.
Gas molecules are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. If light bumps into them, it acts differently. All of the colors can be reflected but the higher frequencies (blues) are affected more often than the lower frequencies (reds) in a natural phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering.
Blue wave lengths scatter as they pass through the gaseous atoms of nitrogen and oxygen reflecting blue light to all corners of the sky therefore see a blue sky.
That is the science behind a blue sky.
Over the years our lives get cluttered with stuff like the water droplets and dust particles. That stuff, all of our tears, fears and frustrations, do not stop the light that God shines from going forward but it does affect the way people see and react to its affect on us.
Through the garbage they see a sad, grey life that is hindered by emotional and spiritual baggage. Nothing about that grey life offers them much hope or encouragement. The light is there but the effects of the light and our response to it isn’t very inspirational or uplifting. In fact it’s a rather drab existence characterised by an overwhelming sense of lack.
People look at the sky and decide that they would much rather allow the atmosphere of their hearts to continue on in darkness broken by the occassional, brief pin prick of light.
God wants to clear away that garbage and bring us clarity. He wants to give us the freedom to respond to Him, to the light, and reflect it back into the world in a unique and beautiful way.
(Tye, Chelsea B., Cathy R., Chelsea H., Me, Callie.)
We, the women of team Blue Sky, want that. We do not want to live grey, drab lives where we acknowledge the presence of God but never enter into it. We want to surrender everything that holds us back and turn our faces full into the light of the Son so that we can reflect the brilliance of his love in the world around us.
We want to be set free so that we can set others free.
That is the desire of our hearts and the reality that God dreams of for each of us.
That is the hidden meaning behind the name.
Beautiful isn’t it?
