Or, Lessons from Shattered Windows
There are about four events in my life that I can say made such an impact that the course of my life journey changed. One of them was accepting Christ to come and make changes in my life. The other three included abuse and trauma. They were painful, and tore me apart. One has left me fully shattered....
Imagine seeing a familiar picture in stained glass, and the comfort of regularly seeing it; devoter, doubter, demonized, divine, wherever your spirit has taken you...and then, in war, hate, anger, strife, everything you own is demolished, and when you come back to that picture you remembered, you find it shattered.
You sift through the broken pieces, searching for anything recognizable. A face, a piece of cloak, the sky, a dove. It’s only a fraction, but you hold onto your find....
How do you fix a glass you can’t replace? How do you fix a person’s shattered self?
InSt. Peter’s Church Mancroft, UK, their broken pieces were big enough that they could improvise, and in the improvisation, new associations were made...like using the face of an angel to replace Mary’s...
Imagine seeing a familiar picture in stained glass, and the comfort of regularly seeing it; devoter, doubter, demonized, divine, wherever your spirit has taken you...and then, in war, hate, anger, strife, everything you own is demolished, and when you come back to that picture you remembered, you find it shattered.
You sift through the broken pieces, searching for anything recognizable. A face, a piece of cloak, the sky, a dove. It’s only a fraction, but you hold onto your find....
How do you fix a glass you can’t replace? How do you fix a person’s shattered self?
InSt. Peter’s Church Mancroft, UK, their broken pieces were big enough that they could improvise, and in the improvisation, new associations were made...like using the face of an angel to replace Mary’s...
Anglican church in Meaford served as a military chaplain in England during the war. He brought back pieces of broken stained glass from several churches, which were then used to create entirely new images. People’s lives were shattered by the loss of a loved one during a war they didn’t have on their own land. These windows are the closest concrete proof to the decimation they would have felt. In Ontario, Canada, the minister of the
What if the pieces left are so small, so many, that no new coherent images are left? That the bomb of life’s events is so huge, the enormity of the destruction leaves nothing recognizable of the original?
This happened in Winchester in the 1500’s when the bomb of Cromwell’s asceticism destroyedits Cathedral windows through the Roundheads. The shards were preserved by the people who cherished them.
They took all that brokenness, and instead of making a poor remake of the original, they made a beautiful mosaic. Here and there, a face, a piece of clothing, a piece of sky, refers to an original long lost, but was later renewed to use its colours to play with the light shining through.
This happened in Winchester in the 1500’s when the bomb of Cromwell’s asceticism destroyedits Cathedral windows through the Roundheads. The shards were preserved by the people who cherished them.
They took all that brokenness, and instead of making a poor remake of the original, they made a beautiful mosaic. Here and there, a face, a piece of clothing, a piece of sky, refers to an original long lost, but was later renewed to use its colours to play with the light shining through.
Regardless of which window we choose to embrace, each has meaning and beauty due to the unique nature of its story.
May this be true about you and about me.
May this be true about you and about me.