This article appears courtesy of Rev Magazine.

Slowing down to get a good staining.?
Getting stained..?
by Dan Kimball

I had a rather unusual hectic and fast moving several weeks of ministry. It seemed there were exponential levels of added meetings, more speaking, more writing deadlines, and more extremely big transitions happening in the life of our church. I was feeling rather frazzled and thin. So, I took a day to go and pray to try and regain some refreshment to my soul and reconnect with God.

On the recommendation of our worship leader, Josh Fox, I went down to Carmel, which is a small town in California about a half hour drive from Santa Cruz . There is a small little chapel that Josh goes to pray which he told me you can sit with no interruption. I found the tiny little church, however the experience was not at all like I had hoped. For one, Josh hadn’t been down there to the church during the busy tourist season, so he wasn’t aware of the constant tourists coming in to take pictures. I tried to pray, but my mind was so filled with sermons, decisions, noise. I even was feeling upset with Josh for recommending me this place. So, I sat there. No peace. I tried to read my Bible but the words were simply being read but not sinking into my heart. I couldn’t settle down and became more frustrated thinking I would have been better off if I stayed at the office. However, it all changed when the room suddenly became very colorful.

The sun must have come out from behind the clouds and as it did, it shined through the stained glass windows that were all around the tiny chapel. I was amazed I hadn’t really noticed them before, but now the sun lit them up brilliantly. As I looked at the panes, there was Jesus, Joseph and Mary traveling to Egypt. There was Jesus being baptized. There were scenes from the Bible I got up from the pew I was in and sat closer to the brilliant stained glass images and paid attention to the detail and beautiful color. I then noticed that there were several stained glass panels with images of people who made a different for Christ throughout church history. Each image had symbols around them which represented their ministry. I went and found a brochure describing who each person was and the meaning of the various symbols around their images. Augustine was shown writing, and next to him was a heart with flames around it representing his heart on fire for Christ. There were arrows piercing the heart, to represent the remorse he had for his past sin. There was a stained glass panel of Bach playing an organ with the initials “SDG” (Soli Deo Gloria = For God’s Glory) next him which was what he write on every piece of music he composed. There was an image of St. Bonaface from Germany chopping down a tree which represented how he stood strong against pagan religions and even cut down a tree which was part of pagan worship in his time period.

As I sat there looking at the ten or so stained glass panels of people throughout church history, I began wondering what would my stained glass image be? Would it show someone who was always rushing around and flustered? Would it show someone who was always tired? What symbols would be shown to represent me and my heart? I sat for a long time and prayed finally able to focus my thoughts as I did some self-reflection. As I quieted my soul looking at the beauty of the stained glass images, my mind went to some passages out of Ephesians. I reflected on the fact that we are God’s “workmanship” created in Christ in advance for good works He prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). The word ‘workmanship’ comes from the very word we get “poem” from. I sat and thought how we are all poems, and pieces of art that God created like the stained glass. Each piece of art created for a purpose. I reflected how in Ephesians 3:10 that we, the church are even on display before the angelic realm. God’s pieces of art, His stained glass poetry, each of us a panel on display to the heavenlies as we fulfill the purpose He created us in advance to do.

I looked closer at the stained glass panels, and realized the pieces to themselves, were not what was beautiful. In fact, the individual glass pieces on their own are not too pretty at all. But, like the sin-“stained” human beings we are, God assembles broken prices like us into beautiful images – His workmanship- used for His glory. And that what makes the stained glass beautiful is not the glass itself either, but the sunlight shining through them. Like us, without Jesus shining through us, we are only sin-stained and not beautiful, but with Jesus God uses us, his artwork, for a purpose and to be on display to the angelic realm.

I ended up praying there in the chapel for quite a while. I drew out some images similar to the types I saw in the panels of those in church history of what I would hope my stained glass image would be. I drew some symbols which I hoped would represent my life and ministry. What at first was a very frustrating day of trying to pray, turned into a pretty powerful day of reflection and appreciation for what God does. God used the beauty of the stained glass to think and pray. I would encourage you to think about this, What would your stained glass image be? What symbols would represent you? What theme in your life would you say would be seen in your “stained glass”? I’m glad Josh told me to go to that little chapel.