Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Sassy

Sassy

He’ll turn 8 in a little over a week.

He was born on Mother’s Day in 2007.

8 weeks he came home with me. A little golden ball of fur who whined all night and awkwardly tumbled upstairs and was so adorable I almost thought about renting him out to single folks.

He’s always had a heart of gold. I like to think it’s from his golden coat that goes with me everywhere.

Whenever we go out, people are often taken aback by his size. “Does he bite?” they ask. Always with a grin, I reply, “Nope. He’ll lick ya to death.”

I guess you could say he is a gentle giant.

People who don’t have pets don’t quite understand their impact on us humans. Often when I’ve talked about Silas and Chloe people will ask, “Oh, are they your children?” and when I politely say no there is often an expression of judgment. No that is too strong of a word. There is an expression of misunderstanding and ignorance. Pets are intuitive creatures. Especially dogs. When the time is right, rarely do they instigate for their own sake of feeling good. Nor do they ever talk back. And never have I ever come home and was met by Silas and Chloe with their tails not wagging. Even on their worst days, and on my very awful, no good, bad days, they offer me love.

All went well today at our vet appointment. Both dogs are healthy and the lumps found on Silas’ belly are nothing to worry about. A large sigh of relief was breathed at the house upon the good news.

They are with me now at church. Asleep at my feet. Silas is snoring by the door. And Chloe, well, about every 4 minutes she raises her head as if she has heard something. Perhaps she hears the church mouse.

Next week Silas turns 8. The following week Chloe will turn 3. They are dogs, yes. But they are much more than that. They are companions and teachers. They reveal insight about joy and simplicity, grace and forgiveness, happiness and love. Life isn’t perfect. And trust me, my pups aren’t perfect. However, despite the imperfections, they help me see each day as a gift, a reason to go on an adventure and smell the flowers, to walk a little slower, to saunter more.

Before you think I’ve gone off the deep end and am a pantheist, let it be known I am a Christian. In fact, I absolutely love the story of creation and how God created us in Her image, selflessly and with great love. I find comfort knowing that before God made a partner for humans, there were animals to keep us company. However, I do like to read those ancient creation myths that depict God with a dog. These stories do not explain the existence of the dog; like God, the dog is assumed to have existed from the beginning. In this assumption, these primordial people revealed their intense attachment to their animal companions.

I agree with Milan Kundera who speaks to this attachment when he says:

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.

Silas can be sassy.

Chloe can be…difficult?

But they make me smile.

And that is one of the greatest gifts of peace I can receive.

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Solomon

Solomon

Before the daffodil petals disappear.

Before the bright colors of the tulips turn to green.

Before the maple trees burst into fits of green.

Before the whites and yellows, purples and pinks are gone take time to enjoy them.

Luke 12.27

²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

Take time to be still today. Take time to watch the robin hop from limb to limb. Take time to watch a squirrel struggle to get every bit of that bird seed from your feeder.

Thoreau said, and I think suggested, “Many a forenoon have I stolen away, preferring to spend thus the most valued part of the day; for I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and spent them lavishly; nor do I regret that I did not waste more of them in the workshop or the teacher’s desk.”

Do what you need to do today.

Work a solid 8 hours. Accomplish all that is on your to do list. Go grocery shopping. Mow the lawn or weed the garden. Grade papers or bake goodies.

Whatever it is you need to do, do it and do it well.

Then, be still.

Take in the season of spring. Take a stroll around the block and notice the plants you haven’t before. Take a drive to the park and walk a trail.

Whatever it is you need to do, take time to do it and be still.

Be still.

Stop. Don’t argue. Don’t make excuses.

Be still.

Your spirit will thank you. The earth will too.

April Prayer

by Stuart Kestenbaum

Just before the green begins there is the hint of green

a blush of color, and the red buds thicken

the ends of the maple’s branches and everything

is poised before the start of a new world,

which is really the same world

just moving forward from bud

to flower to blossom to fruit

to harvest to sweet sleep, and the roots

await the next signal, every signal

every call a miracle and the switchboard

is lighting up and the operators are

standing by in the pledge drive we’ve

all been listening to: Go make the call.

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Stained Glass

Stained Glass

I’ve heard it said once that each of us is like a stained glass window—beautiful, colorful, and translucent. All of us are beautiful exactly as we are but we are made even more beautiful by the light of God that shines through us revealing an inner translucent that is breathtaking.

Part of the splendor of stained glass is that it is exactly that – the colors are not painted on but are deliberately created in the manufacture of the glass by the addition of metallic salts. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

You believe this, right? You know that you are wonderfully and beautifully made, inside and out? And you also know that God created you in the image of God?

Take a few moments and sit with this truth.

Read Psalm 139: 13-18. Look at yourself in a mirror. Look at the beauty God has created in the uniqueness of your features:  the amazing complexity of each part of your body that was formed in your mother’s womb.

Read Psalm 139: 13-18 a second time. Visualize the “colors” that God has created in who you are that give you a unique luminescence when light shines through. Thank God for the beauty of who you are created to be.

Now, before the nasty freezing rain and sleet get here, go outside and take a walk in the sun. Where do you see the glory of God shining through with that inner luminescence? Take some photos of your favorite “translucent” scenes. Write about them in your journal. Thank God for the glory that shines through all creation.

Even in creation light shines through the pollution and the de-afforestation. It isn’t just the pristine landscapes where God’s light shines, but also in that stunning sunset which is full of oranges and reds, purples and lavenders, yellow and gold.

Now, look in the mirror again. Take a good look. Perhaps you notice the crow’s feet or the bags around your eyes. Maybe you see the broken areas within, the parts no one can see. Often it is our wounded areas that glow most brightly with the inner translucence of God. What are the wounded places in your life that glow with God’s presence? Write them down and thank God for divine light that shines in and through you.

Now listen to the song below and read through these lyrics of the refrain. What else is God saying to you today? How might you respond?

Let your light shine.
Let your love show
It’s a short ride
Down the long road.
When the rains come
And the winds blow
Let your light shine
Wherever you go.

Through Stained Glass: Advent Word of the Day--Created

Day 2:  Created

In the beginning, God created… [Genesis 1.1]

I thought about posting a picture of the meal I created last night with chicken, peppers and onions, olive oil and a little seasoning, which went over rice.

I thought about posting a photo of a space I created in my study that tells the story of my faith journey:  my infant baptism certificate, my Pope Francis figurine, a couple of icons, the Tanakh, among other significant items. Together these objects make a type of altar, a reminder of the vocation to which I am called.

“And I knew that the Spirit that had gone forth

to shape the world and make it live was still

alive in it. I just had no doubt. I could see that

I lived in the created world, and it was still being

created. I would be part of it forever. There was

no escape. The Spirit that made it was in it,

shaping it and reshaping it, sometimes lying at

rest, sometimes standing up and shaking itself,

like a muddy horse, and letting the pieces fly.”

― Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

Then I remembered the picture I took last night just before I went in to the local rec center to run 3 miles, an added discipline to a routine/schedule that I created with some of my friends.

Before I went in to accomplish running regimen I created that would surely aid in burning left over Thanksgiving calories, I had to stop and take in the view. With the cold December air on my face, I stood and marveled at what appeared to be 2 worlds colliding together, creating a beautiful display of color.

A world of darkness.

A world of light.

Heaven.

and

Earth.

I stood admiring the beauty right in front of me. On this green and blue planet full of so much pain and brokenness, the evening sunset reminded me of God’s good intentions when God created.

Creation has a way of doing that, doesn’t it? It discloses a power that baffles our minds and beggars our speech. From the sight of a well-turned double play, which was created by a lead off base hit by the sweet swinging Anthony Rizzo, to the Rocky Mountains rising up out of the horizon created by years of those tectonic plates underground crashing into each other, have a tendency to leave us in wonderment.

We stutter and stammer about God’s creativeness, God’s goodness, and God’s ability to create selflessly—creating

you

and

me

not only good but also

in God’s very own image.

John Calvin once said, “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”

Advent is a time to rejoice in the peace found in the Creator taking on flesh and becoming one with creation. Advent is a season where we are reminded of the One in which we are created in and from…

Emmanuel.

In the beginning and

right now

and in the days to come,

God created and calls it all

good very good.

What will you create this Advent season to tell of God’s goodness and love?

Below is one of my favorite poems about creation. It was written by Baptist preacher James Weldon Johnson and can be found in his book God's Trombone.