Fingerprints on the Stained Glass

                                             Fingerprints on the Stained Glass


I wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't read in a building committee report about not all the lights working on the stained glass windows in the chapel. The stained glass on the sides of the chapel and up above the choir are beautiful. But when you live with beauty you can sometimes take it for granted. Two of the stained glass windows are back lit as they aren't "outside"windows. Apparently, the lights aren't working on them.

On rare occasions I will  go into the chapel to sit and soak, meditate, pray, wonder, breathe, think, not think, and have a little fun (yes, I lead a dull life) looking at the large stained glass up front. I've neglected to really study the ones on the side depicting the life of Jesus. There are eight of them. They may not be in perfect order but with wonderful colors and surprising detail they show the birth of Jesus; Jesus at the Temple confounding the teachers; His baptism; the sermon on the mount;  the woman at the well; His death; His resurrection and His ascension. As with the stained glass of ancient Spain, the Middle East,and Europe one could tell the story of Jesus by following the stained glass around the sanctuary. To those centuries ago who couldn't read, it was a great visual way to learn the essentials of the life of Jesus. For us today, who, although we can read the Bible, are sensitized to visual mediums the stained glasses help us "see" the story. They are purdy, too.

Now I am about to tell you something that I fear to tell you. I fear to tell you because some goody two shoes church-ey person will try to fix what they see as a problem and I see as a good thing. The stained glass has fingerprints on it. That's a good thing. All the beauty, all the lessons, all the history, all the meaning is lost if sinners like me can't get our hands on it. If Jesus can't be "gotten hold of"' and contact me and my world with the truths in those glasses, then its just pretty glass that is nice to glance at from time to time.

But here is another truth, maybe the best truth. When you look closely, really closely, squinting your eyes and tilting your head and heart at just the right angle of faith, I think you will see fingerprints from the inside of the glass. I wonder..........

This I know, Christianity is not a stained glass faith, fragile and to be kept at a respectable distance for viewing only. How do I know? Jesus has fingerprints. They were all over doors, tables, tools, wood he worked and lives He touched. Wow, a God with fingerprints. Don't try to clean them off.

Have they touched your heart?