Scripture Windows Part 2

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.  Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.  Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Scripture isn't always a clear window.  It is one that has the smudges and fingerprints of those who have sought to share these words over time.  And when we step close, we add our own DNA to these words as they move through the colander of our context.  One of my favorite images of how to engage Scripture is how we stand before a stained glass window.

Just as a stained reveals different colors in different times of day.  Just as colors of the glass can cast kaleidoscope of colors onto the ground.  Just as those once vibrant colors become mute in moments when darkness falls outside.  Just as we can stand before a stained glass window and see one thing.  Only to come back the next day and see something entirely new...different...unique.  That is Scripture for me.

To be sure, the window hasn't changed.  The artist didn't sneak in under the cover and darkness and add that detail you just noticed.  But something shifted.  The light of grace illuminating or something in your own own eyesight or experience.

I can see a tree in the picture above.  The ways the leaves whirl and swirl around...almost feel the breeze when I step close.  I might want to stand on one of those rocks nearby or want to reach out and touch the texture of the leaves.  I might see the various hues of brown as I inch even closer or wonder if this is the tree of life...perhaps understanding that if I am so taken by it...no wonder Adam and Eve were!  It's beautiful.  It's inviting.  I want to reach out to the bark and bask in the breeze and shadow shade.  And this is a two-dimensional image.

And too often that is where we leave Scripture.  Two-dimensional on some flat page.  Listen to how we read Scripture in monotone voice.  No wonder we think this story is boring.  We read it like we are reading an instruction manual for our microwave.

But what if we let the colors of Scripture start to shine through?  What if we are willing to stand before the full picture or step closer to see the detail of one short verse?  What if Scripture was less word of God and more the colorful creator leaving an artist touch on our lives?

To step close to that window...whether it is colorful or clear...would help us see, sense, and get caught up in a swirling spirit.

A stained glass Scripture window.  May that image rummage and roam around your life and help you as you engage this old, old story that we love so well.

Grace and peace ~~