Meditation Monday - Through Broken Glass
When the light shines, it exposes even the dark and shadowy things and turns them into pure reflections of light. (Ephesians 5:13, 14 The Voice)
It’s Advent, and we are waiting for the light, waiting for the light of Christ to shine in our broken world. Sometimes we wonder if the light will ever come. At other times we feel that we are too broken for the light to real shine within us.
I was thinking about that this weekend as I waded through thousands of photos to put together a couple of photo books for my husband for Christmas. Many of them were photos of the property on Camano Island which I shared about a couple of weeks ago. My eyes lingered over the photos of the broken glass from when our windows were vandalized. It reminded me of this meditation I wrote during that challenging time and I want to share it with you again today.
When I asked for suggestions on how to use the broken glass created by the vandalism to our property on Camano Island one person suggested we get two glasses, that could be placed inside each other with broken glass between them to create a candle holder. We were inspired by this idea, and used it as the basis for one of our liturgical exercises at the next Celtic retreat.
My first experiment was interesting but also disconcerting in some ways. I cleaned out a couple of vases and dribbled the glass, which I had rinsed out and cleaned, between them, then placed a candle in the centre and let the light shine through.
I was horrified by how many impurities there were in my collection of glass, imperfections that I was not aware of until I lit the candle. Dirt, seeds, leaves and sticks suddenly came to life.
There is a big difference between brokenness and impurity I decided and it is only when God’s light shines through that we become aware of the difference. Brokenness can be used to reflect God’s light, the impurities just need to go.
What is your response?
Sit quietly and think about your own life. What do you think is the difference between brokenness and impurity? In what ways has God’s light shone through your life so that you can distinguish the difference? What has been your response to this?
So I washed the glass fragments again and laboriously picked out the seeds and leaves. The fragments were transformed.
They no longer looked dull and lifeless, they now glowed with a rainbow of colours. When I lit the candle the light was even brighter and its red colour shone through. Yes some of the impurities remained, it was almost impossible for me to get out all the dirt and leaves, but the light shining through made it easier to distinguish what still needed to be removed, and now I could see the true colours of the light within.
What is your response.
Sit quietly again and think about the places in which God’s light shines most brightly in your life. What impurities are you still aware of that need to be removed? In what ways has the cleansing process God has taken you through revealed those? It what ways has this process allowed the true colours of God’s light to shine through? How does God want you to respond in order to continue the cleansing process?