Light Through Stained-Glass Windows
Poem★★★★Inthe heart of the downtown district of a great East- ern city stands an historic old church. Its walls are heavily coated with the dust and grime of the crowded streets, and the entire structure might easily be passed by as of no particular interest except for the light that comes streaming through the glorious stained-glass windows. As I passed it, late one evening, a meeting was in progress and the dignified old building was transformed into a bulk of beauty. Forbidding and aloof during the day, it was now alive and beckoning to the passers-by in the most cordial and alluring fashion.
The change had come about as a result of the light within. It is the light within that gives the Church of Christ its beauty. Within that light it is just another organization. No matter how dignified the architecture, how elo- CHURCH 61 quent the preacher, or how artistic the choir, if there is no transforming gospel in the life of the people who make up the membership, there is no attractiveness about the church—indeed—it is not really a church.
Certain Greeks came to Jesus’ disciples, saying, ‘Sirs, we would see Jesus.” And the world is coming to the church today for that same purpose.
The point
A meditation on an old, dingy downtown church that transforms into resplendent beauty when light streams through stained-glass windows, illustrating how the gospel gives the Church its inner light and beauty.