The Louisiana hometown where I grew up is right off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes were a regular part of my childhood where every August we would board up our house and leave for a day or two and wait for a storm to pass through. Well, a few years ago, a hurricane named Laura came through and totally demolished my hometown.
The church where I grew up had these beautiful stained glass windows that surrounded the building. They were these scenes of Jesus, and as many miracles, surprisingly, all of the stained glass windows survived Hurricane Laura. But one a piece depicting Jesus ascending into heaven. Coming back after the storm, they found all of the glass pieces on the floor.
Our pastor gathered up all these pieces of broken glass, put it in a garbage bag, and brought it to an artist, and. Nearby town that worked with stained glass, the artist took the bag of broken glass, but he couldn’t figure out how to repair the window. But fortunately, our pastor found an old photo of the window and sent it over to the artist.
It was exactly what he needed. A few months later, the project was complete and this stained glass window was perfectly restored. I really believe that this is the story of our lives. Something horrific descends upon us, something out of our control, and we get shattered. We think of our lives as this perfect picture that we have in our mind.
But we find that we’re just broken glass on the ground and we fear that there’s no way to put the picture back together again. But there is someone who can put things back together. There is someone who knows what the picture is supposed to look like. I am so thankful. That Jesus is an artist who specializes in shattered and broken people.
He even said, healthy people don’t need a doctor. Sick people do. Sometimes to make something new, the old thing has to be broken. That’s what Jesus does. He makes broken things beautiful. This has been everyday miracles by hope, mindfulness, and prayer.
In the year 1818, a 26-year-old Catholic priest by the name of Joseph Moore was preparing for the Christmas Eve service at his church in the Austrian Alps. And while cleaning up the church in preparation, he found out that his organ had broken. This was not good. I mean, here’s this young guy that is probably new to this church.
If you’ve ever gone through art history class, you’re probably familiar with a painting called The Light of the World. It was painted by the British artist Holman Hunt, and hangs in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. It’s one of the most iconic religious paintings in history. The painting depicts Jesus standing outside of a small, dilapidated cottage.
I was recently listening to the U2 album, all that you Can’t Leave Behind, and I came across a song called Grace. The lyrics say this, grace takes the blame, covers the shame, removes the stain, but once was hurt, but once was friction. What left a mark? No longer stings because grace makes beauty out of ugly things.
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