Stained Glass

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I’ve heard it said once that each of us is like a stained glass window—beautiful, colorful, and translucent. All of us are beautiful exactly as we are but we are made even more beautiful by the light of God that shines through us revealing an inner translucent that is breathtaking.

Part of the splendor of stained glass is that it is exactly that – the colors are not painted on but are deliberately created in the manufacture of the glass by the addition of metallic salts. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

You believe this, right? You know that you are wonderfully and beautifully made, inside and out? And you also know that God created you in the image of God?

Take a few moments and sit with this truth.

Read Psalm 139: 13-18. Look at yourself in a mirror. Look at the beauty God has created in the uniqueness of your features:  the amazing complexity of each part of your body that was formed in your mother’s womb.

Read Psalm 139: 13-18 a second time. Visualize the “colors” that God has created in who you are that give you a unique luminescence when light shines through. Thank God for the beauty of who you are created to be.

Now, before the nasty freezing rain and sleet get here, go outside and take a walk in the sun. Where do you see the glory of God shining through with that inner luminescence? Take some photos of your favorite “translucent” scenes. Write about them in your journal. Thank God for the glory that shines through all creation.

Even in creation light shines through the pollution and the de-afforestation. It isn’t just the pristine landscapes where God’s light shines, but also in that stunning sunset which is full of oranges and reds, purples and lavenders, yellow and gold.

Now, look in the mirror again. Take a good look. Perhaps you notice the crow’s feet or the bags around your eyes. Maybe you see the broken areas within, the parts no one can see. Often it is our wounded areas that glow most brightly with the inner translucence of God. What are the wounded places in your life that glow with God’s presence? Write them down and thank God for divine light that shines in and through you.

Now listen to the song below and read through these lyrics of the refrain. What else is God saying to you today? How might you respond?

Let your light shine.
Let your love show
It’s a short ride
Down the long road.
When the rains come
And the winds blow
Let your light shine
Wherever you go.

[Adam Quinn, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lincoln]