Stained Glass

Here is a stained-glass cardinal that I made for a neighbor widow.  Miss Sarah lost her husband five years ago, and a cardinal will remind her of her dear Wally.  But I was thinking as I made this piece.  I planned how it would look.  I made a scale drawing and then copied it on card stock as a template.  I collected the colored glass, the tools, and the supplies to make it.  Then I marked out the glass using the pattern.  With a glass cutter, I etched and snapped the glass to size.  Each precise piece was edged with copper tape, fitted together, and soldered using a special flux.  It took a lot of planning and careful execution to produce the finished product.  Hey, God is exactly that way with my life.  God has planned my story from the beginning.  My parents heard the Gospel a month before I was born and began taking me to church when I was three weeks old.  God orchestrated our move to Maryland where I would meet a pastor from Tennessee Temple, where I would go to college, and where I would meet my future wife (who came to the same school from Michigan).  She heard about Tennessee Temple from her uncle and aunt, who had moved to Chattanooga to teach at the school from Arkansas.  Can you see God’s planning and pattern for our lives?!  While a student, I attended a church nearby that started a Christian school where I taught for two years.  Because our pastor left, I took a job at Calvary Christian school and joined Calvary Independent Baptist Church, where I have been for the last 42 years.  Hey, God puts an awesome plan together!  Paul said in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  Just like my cardinal, God put together and executed the plan for my life.  Hey, did you know that God has a wonderful plan for your life too?!  Turn your life over to the dear Lord and watch the beautiful events in your life unfold!  Much more beautiful than a stained-glass cardinal, yes they are!