sky
Created | Updated Apr 19, 2002
For as long as humans can remember, small children have asked their Fathers, "why is the sky blue Daddy?" A regular reply involves a description of the refraction and reflection of sunlight in the Earth's atmosphere... or something like that. Normally the child who asked the question walks away from this, and then, may be, goes and draws a picture, showing their parents standing before a rather curious looking building, and also showing their perception of the sky - usually with a large gap between it and the ground. Derek Goldsmith from Pearson Street in Hull, was heard to say "a doat no, now shurrup n get back to yer cullerinin karlee", when his 4 year old daughter, Kylie, asked him this very question. What might be useful for these parents to know (and anyone who is thinking of having a child who might ask this question), is that God had originally intended the sky to be yellow. Yellow, is a somewhat happy colour, and was probably a wise choice. However, we all make mistakes don't we... even the big guy himself. When He came to paint the sky, He accidentally picked up the paintbrush He had been using to paint the grass and started painting. So the first few strokes ended up being blue... painting over them was a bit of a trauma in those days so He just carried on as He had started... and so the sky was painted blue.
