The Clear Glass Mosaic

It was a "blah" day. An Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1 day, if you know what I mean. Emotions crept up, and I felt suddenly purposeless, or as if all my purposes weren't meaningful enough, although I knew it wasn't true.

I stood waiting for my frozen dinner to finish in the microwave when a favorite possession caught my eye- a piece of artwork in a wooden frame , an image of a bluebird on a branch, made out differently shaped and sized pieces of clear glass held together with grout. My husband bought the mosaic for me at a Labor Day weekend craft fair on Oak Island, after I admired it but talked myself out of buying it.

The piece hangs from a little chain, on a hook underneath my kitchen cabinet- flat against the wall- because it’s the only place I could find to hang it. I studied it, then looked up at the half circle window near the top of the vaulted ceiling in my kitchen.

"Ooh, I wonder if it could go up there? That would be pretty!"

The microwave had five minutes to go, enough time to put in a hook and move the artwork, if I could reach high enough.

On a whim, I stood up on the window seat and reached my arm high. Way too short.

I went to the garage and got a step ladder, lugged it into the house. positioned it in front of the window, and climbed to the top. Nowhere close.

I thought of putting a chair on the window seat and climbing on top to reach. Way too dangerous and the window seat wasn't wide enough anyway.

The microwave beeped and I still hadn't accomplished what my manic brain had determined should happen in that period of time. I held the artwork in different places near the window, imagining a different home for it, since my original idea had failed. Testing it out over the window valance, a ridiculous place for it, I said to myself out loud, "No, that won't work. It's made to let the light shine through."

Aha. There it was. That was the lesson.

The entire episode of me standing in the window seat and dragging a step ladder from the garage, when I had only intended to warm some turkey and mashed sweet potatoes, was for me to get a message about my own purpose.

It's made to the let the light shine through.

I cried. My ho-hum, feeling good-for-nothing day was instantly transformed. I have a purpose, and it's simple. I'm made to let the light of Jesus shine through me. Just like a clear glass mosaic is more beautiful when the sunlight pours through it, I can show those around me how much more beautiful life is with the love of Christ. Even if I don't feel like I'm doing a good job, that's my purpose. It's every believers purpose. Life isn't meaningless. We're made to let the light shine through.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16