Many years ago, my cousin Neil Stern built a set of stained glass windows for the Upland Brethren in Christ church. If you grew up in a church with weird church words, they sat between the narthex and the sanctuary. If you prefer normal words, they sat between the entryway and the auditorium. Regardless of what words that were used, they lived there for forty years.
During Covid, the service for the church changed to meeting outside and then to the Fellowship Hall. We did that primarily because it was more open, with several sets of big glass doors on both sides. Enclosed places were taboo. One advantage of living in southern California is the tempered climate. The heating and the AC weren’t used. Instead we bundled a little bit and we fanned ourselves as we traveled through the Covid pandemic year. And after that, we decided to stay. I liked meeting in the fellowship hall, it was less formal, easier to mill about and visit before and after the service, and it had a cafe attached.
Well, as the church grew it was decided to go back to the “big church” (you know the one with a narthex.) And they decided to spruce it up some and modernize it a bit. As a result they decided to get rid of that set of stained glass windows. Well, not exactly get rid of. The plan was to cover up them in the entryway, and leave them exposed in the sanctuary. The problem is you need light coming through the windows. I mean, you could still see them, what without the light coming through them the vibrant colors become lackluster. What is the point of having a stained glass window without light streaming through them? When I mentioned it to the pastor, I suggested we should actually remove them and move them somewhere else, and I volunteered to do that. And they said yes.
So for a while my garage woodshop became a stained glass studio. (You probably don’t know this but I did stained glass back in the day. It was a hobby of mine.) Along with that, I planned to build an oak frame to hold them. Easy peasy, I thought, we will remove them from where they were, and install them into the new frame. And then hang them in a window somewhere else in the church. The dimensions for each stained glass window was approx. 4’ by 4’ plus the frames. There were two of them. Which meant we needed a big window. But we found the perfect spot in the cafe.
But while we were removing them, we hit a snag. The windows were glued in with so much silicone it was almost impossible to remove them. The stops were glued in, the windows were glued in. When we finally got them out, we had torn off half of the zinc edging and broke five or six pieces of the glass. What should have been easy became an ordeal. But for me it was a good ordeal.
I’ve been struggling a bit about what I can offer. Especially as I think about my church, what do I have to offer? With my language woes, no teaching, with my fatigue, no labor, with my income stopped, giving to the church became well, different. I know, the amount isn’t as important as your heart. But still, I want to contribute. So I was thankful I could contribute some. The project was a perfect fit with what I still had. My tools, both my woodworking tools and glass tools, and my skillset. It was harder than it would have been pre-stroke, but it was doable.
And now they are hanging in a window in the cafe. And man, do they luster. Hmm, is that even a word? Well, they don’t lack luster anyways.
I really like the design that Neil came up with. What a peaceful scene. And I also like the story about how the first covenant God made to man was presented with a rainbow. I talked to Neil about how the design came to be. He said, The wheat, the grape vine, the water and the flowers are all symbolic of Christ. He is the bread of life, the true vine, the living water and the lily of the valley.
In a different way, it is symbolic to me as well, because the rainbow comes after a storm. That means, to experience the rainbow you have to live through a storm. Granted, the storms we encounter are usually mild, but sometimes they are not. Pretty much everyone encounters a significant storm some time in their life.
The storm that Noah experienced was intense, it was a storm that washed away everything. My “storm” wasn’t that intense, it didn’t wash away everything, but it did wash away some things, and more importantly, it washed off some of the grime in my life. When it was over, the cleanliness of the air, the beauty that was left, and the peace that was there, well, it was remarkable.
That is what I think about when I see these windows. The beauty, the cleanliness, and the peace that God offered me. Obviously, I remember the storm as well. The storm before the rainbow. But mainly I remember the rainbow after the storm was over.
So to not overrun my self-imposed 1000 word limit, here are some footnotes.
Note 1 – The story about the first rainbow.
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. …
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
Gen 9:1-3, 12-17 NIV
Note 2 – The wheat
For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
John 6:33-35, NIV
Note 3 – The vine
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:1-5 NIV
Note 4 – Living water
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13-14 NIV
Note 5 – The lillies
The lily of the valley was never used in the bible to represent Jesus. But it was commonly used by Christians and theologians. One example is the chorus of the hymn, The Lily of the Valley: “He’s the “Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star, He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul”
Note 6 – Starting with a ferocious storm ending with completely calm, Yoo Hoo!
Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?
Mark 4:36-40 NIV
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