Shattered Lives and Stained Glass

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Eccl. 3:11

By: Carol McClain @carol_mcclain

The art of stained glass

Stained glass--who doesn't love it? 

As a child when bored in church, I studied the vivid colors and the play of light through the brilliant windows. Sunday by Sunday, the glass transformed itself into different incredible pieces of art. I told myself stories about the pictures, moved my head to watch the changes and studied the shifting color.

shattered lives yield great beauty

I do have to admit, any stained glass--Tiffany style or simple panes of color--still mesmerize me. So I learned to do it myself.

To make a piece, I'd choose and exquisite piece of glass--one with texture and color and swirls. Always, the sheets were too big. Cut and ground, I lost much of what I savored.

Little pieces left over went into a box, and later be recreated in a sun catcher. Smaller piece become mosaics.

Hundreds of works of art are resurrected from shattered glass.

God makes all things beautiful in his time

Last week a wonderful woman graduated from a half-way house for recovering drug addicts. This is a monumental achievement--if you know anything about addiction, you'd understand how hard it is to achieve and how few make it.

She graduated with honors--only the second woman to do so in the history of the home. She has much to be proud of. Still, one more battle awaits her.

With addiction comes unrelenting guilt. The shame of:

1. Time wasted
2. Families destroyed
3. Health compromised
4. Sins committed

We can't undo the past. It's one of the primary principles of AA, NA or CR (Celebrate Recovery). We know God has forgiven, and He has thrown those sins as far as the east is from the west. Still our wrongs dog us.

But God will make all things beautiful in His time.

Out of our shattered lives, our pain and regrets, He will create a work of exquisite art:

1. God will cut the pieces and solder them into place. 
2. He will compliment the "faults" of the glass with other textures. 
3. Taking the leftover pieces, the Lord will create more gifts and more talents, until every scrap of our lives has been made beautiful.

Quick tweets

Out of shattered lives--stained glass. How? (click to tweet)

Stained life/stained glass. How God makes us beautiful. (click to tweet)

Lessons from Scrapbooking

            I’ll state the obvious. I love to scrap. The pictures I use create loving memories—even of the hard times, like when I ran a race in a hurricaine or the water innudated my basement. I take a picture and then laugh as I recall the events that prompted me.

            It’s a messy hobby. My daughter and I will attend scrapbooking weekends. We need two hotel dollies to haul our supplies in. We’re given space at six foot tables and we wall ourselves in. We shuffle through paper, embellishments, die cutting machines. It’s ugly.

            But the end result is divine.

            Almost more than scrapbooking, I like card making. I take scraps of my scraps and create beautiful cards. Then when I’ve finished, I take scraps of those scraps and make more cards. And then…

            You get the picture.

            This is so like God working in our lives. We make a mess, tear apart the fabric of our lives and He gathers up the pieces and rearranges them. The results are beautiful. There’s nothing He can’t restore and perfect.

            And if you think He cannot redeem you or make something beautiful of your life, think of: Matthew, Mary Magdalene, Legion, David and his murder of Uriah, Rahab, Jacob and many other.  If He mended them, He will make you as glorious.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Eccl 3:11).