The Beauty of Stained Glass

Hello Everyone!

When I was a child, our church was a very small church, but it had the most beautiful stained glass windows.  I used to love to see the sun shining through them and would study how each piece was cut to make the perfect picture.  My favorites were of Jesus with a little lamb and Jesus praying at the Garden of Gethsemane.

During this Christmas Season, we see cards with pictures of churches with stained glass windows.  Many years ago, I knew someone whose job was creating stained glass windows for churches.  He’s since gone home to be with the Lord, yet even back then it was becoming a lost art.  Maybe that’s why we see new churches being built without the stained glass.

I have a few friends who make stained glass sun catchers and hanging pictures.  They tell me that the beauty of these creations comes with the price of cut and burned fingers.  They do this however, for the joy and love of creating something beautiful from broken pieces.

Jesus takes us – stained and broken as we are – and puts the pieces together to form a beautiful picture of Him.  For without becoming broken, surrendering ourselves, we really can’t know Him in that personal way.  Wasn’t He broken for us?  Striped, bruised and beaten beyond recognition?  What He did for us was to become torn so that we could become whole.  Yet not only whole, but to become – as a result of our being broken, we become even more beautiful than we were before.  A new “picture” formed with all the shattered pieces that come together to tell a story of His love. 

There’s another thing about stained glass.  Once the pieces are soldered together, it becomes much stronger than the one big solid piece of glass.  It’s not as easy to be shattered again, for it has the strength of the solder that holds it together.  Jesus is the solder that holds us together and gives us His strength.  In our weakness, He is strong.

This Christmas, as we celebrate His birth, let’s remember why He came.   He loves us so much that He was willing to be torn for us and give up His life so that we have forgiveness and the greatest gift of all – His gift of life eternal with Him.

Happy Birthday Jesus! 

May the love of Jesus be more real to you this Christmas than ever before.  Merry Christmas!

Blessings, Evelyn

Remember to check out my articles on www.innervoicemag.com   The titles are Listen to His Heartbeat, Do-Overs, God’s Love Notes, Just Whistle, End of Your Rope, and the latest, The Fragrance of Fall.  Just click on Our Voice and scroll down to the title.