Wounded Soldiers

"In God's army, only wounded soldiers are used. "
    -a wise friend who has never cease to share with me the little golden nuggets of the books she reads.

The Stained Glass Analogy

There is something very mesmerizing about stained glass: the many colors and ridges, curves and cuts, shapes and figures. There is also something very unsettling about stained glass, how each piece fits so perfectly snug next the rest but leaves a sense of being misplaced, how each color is placed so intentionally next to such contrasting colors,  and how broken glass can still be made to look like a whole.

Each tiny glass you see, carries in itself a very different personality than the piece next to it. Each glass is broken and shaped to fit it's intended position. Without it, a stained glass would not exist.

It is only in the culmination of varies shapes and sizes that something so simple as broken colored glass can form a beautiful pattern or picture worthy enough to be displayed on the walls of a sanctuary. Each broken piece- on its own worthless and dull- together forms something far more beautiful and far more creative.

But let us not forget when we do look at the stained glass, that the different colors and glasses have not anymore added value. The glass alone is still broken and dull. The creativity and the beauty? That is the reflection of the creativity and beauty of ...the artist.

The glass artist gave value and purpose to the otherwise shattered and worthless glass. The artist has planned and positioned each glass with it's own broken and lacking personality, so intentionally in order to maximize the character of each piece. But again, let us not forget that it is because the artist saw  first in the sharp edges of thrown out glass that it can still be made beautiful.

It is in our brokenness and experiences that we are able to support each other and build each other up. It is in our sharp edges that we can sharpen the people around us and build character. It is in all our scars and wounds that the perfection and the beauty of something far greater can be reflected and seen.

It is the beauty and creativity of the artist that we marvel at, not the broken glass...