A Bigger Picture

At our vestry meeting last Monday, Ned Waller gave this excellent devotion. I’d like to share it with you all.

I recently went to England on vacation and got an up-close look at some of the great churches in our Anglican and Episcopal tradition, some for the first time. One of the highlights was going to see the Chapel at King’s College in Cambridge. The fan vaulting is spectacular, but what really enchanted me was the stained glass. There is a lot of it, and the color and shapes are dazzling. It reminded me of a fable that I learned at my beloved summer camp in rural Mississippi, and one I want to share with you today.

So, there they are, all of these pieces of glass, of every shape and color of the rainbow – stunning blues, brilliant greens, sparkling reds – lying there on a big table. The table is in a studio and a craftsman is at work with his team, putting together a big window. One by one, the craftsman picks up the pieces of glass – turning them just so, envisioning how they will fit, and then soldering them into place – so the window comes into focus. 

Amidst all of those colorful pieces, one tiny clear piece of glass lays on the table, watching the construction of this magnificent stained glass window. The little piece of clear glass is getting nervous. It sees all of the other pieces slowly getting picked up off the table and put into the window. But it hasn’t been chosen yet. It’s not brilliant and big like the other pieces and it wonders if it will be left behind, fated to end up on the cutting room floor. Soon, the window is almost done. And there are no other pieces of glass on the table except for this little clear one. It thinks its chance is gone. But then it hears the craftsman say, “My great work is almost completed. Where is that little last piece?” 

And he reaches down and picks up that tiny piece of glass, and then he puts it in place

among the thousands of other big colorful pieces on the pane. The craftsman and his workers stand the window up straight in their workshop. And then the little piece of glass realizes the place it has in that big beautiful window. The sun shines through the pane, and that little piece is the eye of Jesus, shining onto all of his beloved and letting God see into the church where it will be installed. No piece of glass was left behind and the craftsman had a place for every piece, even the little one he put in last. The little piece was overjoyed.

“The great craftsman has not forgotten me, a little clear piece, and I will spend my days shining the light of Christ onto all in the church! Hooray!”

We are all different pieces of colored glass lying on the table, waiting for the great craftsman to pick us up and put us into place. Each of us has a role to play. We don’t know what it will be, or when and where we’ll be put into place. We have to trust that God has a plan for us and can see a bigger picture where we all fit together just right in his creation. It’s scary when we don’t know the plan, but we must remember that every piece gets picked up. And even if some of us are just little pieces of clear glass, feeling less festive or worthy that some of the other bigger pieces, we are no less important in the plans that God has for all of us. We may be the little eyes of Christ that show forth his light to the world.

Pray that we may be instruments of your will in all that we undertake, serving you more perfectly in mind, body, and spirit, to the greatest of our abilities. Amen.

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Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated unto you; and then use us, we pray, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

– A Prayer of Self Dedication, Book of Common Prayer