Just call me stained!

- November 15, 2011

Naomi said to call her, "Mara."

I say call me, "Stained."

I'm blemished. And as hard as I try to make it not so with them, it seems that my children are cursed with blemishes too and I'm sad.

At times I just want to throw up my hands in surrender and say, "Forget this!" It's just too hard. Not only is parenting hard, but the children have no idea of what I'm trying to invest in them. It's as if they don't care. So I'm wondering early this Saturday morning, "Should I? Should I care?"

It is very easy for me to distance myself and get into a mechanical mode, to protect myself, you know?

Hmmm. Choices.

As I'm thinking these thoughts I look on my bed and see the book that I bought at the Women of Faith Conference by Patsy Clairmont: "Stained Glass Hearts."

I'm really getting into this book. While feeling sorry for myself—something I do oh so well. I saw this phrase written on the book, "Seeing life from a broken perspective."

Broken. That sure sums up everyone in this household.

"Broken. Broken. Yeah, that's it . . . we're all broken Lord. Stained."

But broken, stained folks is who the Lord works with, isn't it? Why do I forget this often?

Why do I set out looking for perfection when it doesn't exist?

If I want to be like Christ I must learn to love, what I deem, the unlovable. The hard and difficult people. The people that cause me much grief sometimes. I must learn to love them. Love myself even.

"In acceptance lieth peace," Elisabeth said so often.

I wanna tell you a story.

Have you heard of Dale Chilhuly? Dale is a glass artist. In 1976 he was in a serious automobile accident that threw him through the car's windshield, causing him to lose his left eye.

Vision is an important part of an artist's ability to maintain balance in his art and scope.

Then Dale injured his shoulder scuba diving, and those combined accidents forced him to step down from his coveted master glass grinder position. It appeared Chihuly's career in the art of glass would be greatly altered or perhaps even be over, but then a life-changing moment occurred. Listen to Dale in his own words ...

Once I stepped back, I enjoyed the view. I enjoyed the view.

He lost his vision in one eye, he lost his esteemed position, and he likes what he sees?

What he saw was his art from a new angle. His unwanted change gave him a different perspective.

Dale couldn't have imagined that his limitations would position him to see limitless possibilities.

You and I can not imagine that our life-limitations would position us to see our limitless possibilities the way God does?

Dale is now considered by many to be the premiere glass designer in the world.

Here is some of his glass work:

Now I want to show you some beautiful stain glass displays. Keep in mind that before we see the finish product there is a process that takes place in making this "broken glass" presentable.

Broken pieces are useful in the displaying of stain glass. As Pasty Clairmont says, "Stain glass art doesn't begin to show its beauty or its inspiration or release its story until light touches the dark. The light transforms an otherwise subtle picture into a brilliant, dimensional experience.

It's how we are... broken... in need or repair, longing, frightened of being seen in the light.