Stained Glass -- a commentary on the blemishes that make us beautiful

I am a sucker for stained glass. I also love the whole idea of portraying sacred events through stained glass, although I do think there is too much emphasis on baby Jesus and not his adult life. I'm sure he was a good kid (as good as kids can be) but I'm sure there were times that Mary got tired taking care of Him too (although divine, he was still human, and so was his mom). If parenting is wearing on you, take encouragement that Mary wasn't always as peaceful looking as the paintings imply.

But think about stained glass for a second with me. Some glass is made for windows and some glass is made for mirrors. Glass both reflects and refracts light. It is actually not a typical solid, but not a liquid either (having certain properties of both). It's amazing to think about it originating from melted sand. I could write many paragraphs on each of these things, but you can nerd out on Google with articles written by scientists. All this is to say that glass is definitely unique, dare I say beautiful.

Enter the stains: that translucent glass just had to get all messed up and polluted, didn't it? Well, nothing is perfect in life (unless I'm paying for new windows!) so why shouldn't glass have blemishes too? The thing about stained glass is that although one person sees it as glass "stained" with impurities, those same impurities actually increase its beauty! Instead of letting in clear light, it tints the light to be blue, red, green, or golden yellow! These colors are more brilliant than one can paint because it uses the light to increase the beauty.

It is the same way with people. We are all stained by a past of friends betraying our trust, parents failing us, chronic diseases, and our own mistakes. We all struggle with who to trust and how much to trust them. But these impurities do not have to be our undoing. When we let love shine through those "stains" it makes us and those the love touches more beautiful.

This stained glass was given on the 100th anniversary of an old church in South Asia by the queen of England (which was over 50 years ago!).

Keep shining the light!
Aerodart