Monday, September 28, 2009

Stained Glass



The past few days have been full of surprises and things that required my undivided attention and to be honest, once I was able to take care of the needs that were swirling around me, there just wasn’t anything else left to do but fall into bed, exhausted. So while I wrote to you in my head but it never made the transition to the blog.

I found out on Friday that I would be having surgery on October 9th. This has been a surprise. We knew that I was having some abdominal problems but were hoping that it would pass, heal, fix on it’s own, or could be treated with medication. Unfortunately the CT scan showed that there was a little bit more involved and I possibly have an internal hernia. This is not a good thing to have and so my wonderful surgeon will be going in on the 9th and fixing it. If all goes well I should be home that evening and back to 100% in a few days, well, maybe 99.9%, hopefully feeling a lot better, able to eat like I am supposed to, and not losing any more weight. (I never in a million years thought that I would say that).

I got an ah-ha moment last night. Don’t you love those? My daughter is going through the normal angst that all young ladies go through and we were talking about young men and whether or not “boys were stupid” and about first kisses and crushes and just love in general. I want so much for her to understand how valuable she is and not look for her value from someone of this world. She can ONLY find her value in God because He considers her priceless; but man and the world will try to change and influence and take away from what God considers His masterpiece. We are each a masterpiece, but unfortunately, many of us don’t realize that.

I know everyone has seen a stained glass. My ah-ha moment came last night when I realized that a stained glass is like my life now. When I was created I was as a piece of glass, solid and unbroken. But then, each sin, each hurt, each painful decision and even some of the good decisions that I made along the way took a shard of that glass. The people that came into my life and the people that left my life, all changed the glass in some way. Some things broke the glass, or shattered it (divorce, abuse, abortion, betrayal) and some things chipped it, (lies, cheating, stealing, etc.). Whether these were things that I did or were done to me, they left a crack or break in the glass.

Some of the pieces were colored with sadness, joy, anger, tears, changing the color and the pattern of the glass. To someone else, looking in, and even looking at it myself, all I could see was the destruction and the worthlessness of what I had become. We replace, throw away, or forget about the broken things in our life…or at least we try to forget....

But….

…God.

God wants to take those pieces, ALL of the pieces, and create a pattern that is made stronger by the fact that He is running through it. He can brighten the colors, give them character and life and when He sent his Son to die, Jesus' blood stains the glass of my life and wipes out all the wrong and then it is sealed, soldered together and makes a beautiful design.

But in the dark the beauty cannot be seen. It isn’t until the glass is filled with light, His Light, that it can be seen for the beauty that it is. No one comes through life with his or her glass intact. We are all broken, shattered, chipped and streaked. But…God wants the world to see the masterpiece He can create but you have to have a light. His light shining through your stained glass life. Do not see what has gone before as broken and beyond repair. Ask God to weave your brokenness into His masterpiece.

For we are God's masterpiece, He created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10

God I pray for those that are reading these words. I ask that You show each person how fearfully and wonderfully they are made God. I ask that just as we give value to an object, how much more valuable are the living breathing souls that You lovingly created in Your own likeness? God I pray that each person will allow You to turn the shards of their life into a beautiful stained glass that Your light can shine through and give hope and peace to all it touches. Thank you my Father for loving me more then I could ever imagine and for making me one of Your masterpieces. Amen.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. What a different perspective on "stained glass." I wish there was a way to take each broken piece of my own, put it into a pattern, give it a name, color it to match the emotion that each piece brings, hang it in a window and watch God's light shine through it as a reminder that He sees us through it all.

Thanks, Leigh

Gracie Baby

Anonymous said...

Amazing insight from a God led woman... my wonderful wife.

Anonymous said...

You are awesome my darling. You never stop amazing me. I knew it was there and am so glad to see you doing what you've always wanted to do, write. Thank you and love you! Mama #2