Being new to the flight tracking website (“adsb-exchange”) it was completely lost on me that the different colors of the airplanes had any significance at all.
The planes coming across our backyard at a southwest diagonal are always green on the flight tracking website. I had never thought anything about it. The planes coming in and out of SeaTac are always orange and yellow. Still, I had never thought anything about it.
But when I followed hubby’s fight across the country from Philadelphia … I suddenly became aware that the different colors of the airplanes are in fact hugely significant. The color indicates the elevation level the plane is at.
Here are the basic colors:
When a plane is on the ground, or just about to touch down … it is bright orange in color.
When a plane is lined up in queue to land and is in the process of coming down, down, down … it is pale orange.
When a plane is at the next level higher … it is yellow.
Check it out! You are already looking at the map in a whole new way!
Already you can tell a whole lot about this map which you wouldn’t have thought twice about a few minutes ago. Now you immediately know that the yellow plane coming in at the top is descending to get in queue for landing.
On the map you can also see a yellowish-greenish plane which has just taken off and is climbing … turning colors from yellow to green as it climbs.
Then as planes continue to climb higher, they turn from green to turquoise blue … and then to a darker shade of blue.
Here you go … you’ve got all the different shades. And as you glance at the screenshot, you can immediately tell what’s going on just by the colors of the different airplanes. Isn’t that cool!
Wait a minute! … there’s a dark blue plane directly in the way of where all the other planes are coming in to land at SeaTac! Is that blue plane going to crash with the others!?
No … no worries at all. It’s dark blue, which means it’s way up high in elevation, and out of the way of the rest of the air traffic.
Ok let’s zoom out a little bit on my phone. Now you might notice some purple planes. These are even higher in elevation than the dark blue.
Let’s zoom out a little bit more. The whole scene makes a lot more sense now doesn’t it! The pale blue planes are still climbing. The dark blue planes are a bit higher up. And the purple planes are at cruising altitude. Even higher above purple, the color turns to bright pink.
Let’s scroll over to the right to see what the eastern side of Washington state looks like this morning. Whoa! Check out all that air traffic!
With just a glance you can immediately tell that most of that air traffic is passing over at cruising altitude. The orange planes here and there let you know those are small private planes puttering around from little municipal airports.
Let’s scroll a little bit more over to the right. Here we can see the state of Montana. It’s just super high planes passing over at cruising altitude. Oh, and a little municipal airport with a few small private planes.
Scrolling over a bit more to the right … here we can see North Dakota this morning. Quite a bit more traffic cruising past overhead. Ahhhh … that’s why! All that traffic is coming out of Minneapolis-St. Paul!
Isn’t it amazing how you can now make sense of that map, which before would have just looked like a big, jumbled mess. You can immediately differentiate the small planes at lower altitudes from the big planes cruising past overhead at super high altitudes.
And then scrolling on over to Chicago. It’s fascinating isn’t it!
Looking at the screenshots of Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul … it makes me think that this is sort of what God sees when he looks down on humanity.
When it comes to religion and spirituality, sometime people “put on airs” (so to speak) trying to appear super religious or super spiritual. People “put on airs” by praying big fancy prayers … or perhaps by dressing a certain way when attending church, in order to impress everyone else.
People “put on airs” by bragging about how much Bible they know! Or how many verses they have memorized. There are innumerable ways people can “put on airs” to impress others about their “elevation level” when it comes to God.
Of course, we have no idea what anybody’s personal relationship with God is really truly like. All we can see is that from all outward appearances they are most definitely “super spiritual.” Ooooo … look at how much Bible knowledge they know. They must be a “purple airplane” when it comes to their “elevation level” with God.
Oooo … look how often they attend church. They must be a “green airplane” as they are climbing higher and higher in their “elevation level” with God.
Oh, they don’t go to mid-week Bible study. I guess they must be a “yellow airplane” hanging out down at a lower “elevation level” with God.
We judge other people based on our own viewpoint of what “elevation levels” with God looks like.
But God doesn’t see things the way we see things. God sees the heart. God sees that the person who brags about how much Bible knowledge they know … in reality, they don’t actually obey what the Bible says. They know a lot … but they don’t actually do any of it.
God sees that the person who has all the outward appearances of “holiness” … in reality, they actually have a lot of bitterness stored away in their heart!
God looks down from heaven at humanity and it’s like looking at the screenshots of Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul. God sees every person! God sees every person in vivid color of what their actual “elevation level” with him really truly is!
“The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7
If your life was an airplane elevation color, at what elevation level with God would you be?
