Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: FRAGILE (02/23/17)
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TITLE: Broken Glass | Previous Challenge Entry
By Francie Snell
03/02/17 -
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“Be careful. Don’t hold it like that,” I snapped, and then marched around the car and rescued the lamp shade from his grasp. “You’ve got to hold it with both hands.” I took a deep breath of relief as I held the lamp like a mother with her new born child. Then I shuddered. What if it had broken?... the first Tiffany style lamp I’ve ever owned.
Holding it closely to my chest, I cautiously stepped along the gravel pathway, up the porch steps and into the house. At the end of the hallway, in the far corner of the small office, stood a five-foot lampstand waiting to receive its crown. Finally the moment I’d been waiting for. With breathless delight, I placed the dome on top of the stand and stood back to admire the new addition. The Kaleidoscope of pastel colors of pink, green, blue, and yellow glass couldn’t have been a better match for the surrounding colors in the room. I clapped my hands. “It’s perfect!”
The afternoon sun lit up the room through the northerly window as I examined the complex design more closely. The intricate glass pieces joined together in a repeating pattern of multicolored hummingbirds feeding from the nectar of blue tulips. Each uniquely shaped piece of glass was strategically in position by design. And like all beautiful creations, the lamp shade was evidence of a masterful creator.
I began to imagine the steady hands that created it. Slowly, and with great care, cutting each small piece at a time, patiently grinding off the rough edges to make them all fit, foiling the glass around every edge, then joining one piece to the next with molten lead. Such a wondrous art, I mused.
Every piece different in size, shape and color, it was a vision of multifaceted symmetry, each broken piece an important part of a greater whole. It reminded me of the church, and the unity of God’s people.
Still the best was yet to come.
What was beautiful by day became more dazzling by night. When I flipped on the light switch later that evening, the stain glass masterpiece cast its splendor lighting up the room . The different hues seemed to dance on the walls. It reminded me of God’s Holy Spirit enabling believers to be a light unto the world.
And yet, it was another reminder of how wonderfully unique and yet so fragile each of us are, and how intricately connected we are to other believers. Designed by a powerful creator, intricately shaped in His tender grip, loved and protected in his caring arms, we are the church, His beautiful creation.
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As much as I like them, I almost feel like you don't really need the last two paragraphs, or that they should be a bit more subtle. It shifted tone a bit from "nice story" to more of a devotional tone, and I'm not sure that was necessary. Maybe just ended it with something along the lines of "It reminded me how our Creator takes our broken pieces and turns it into something beautiful."
I really do like this though, and I do like the spiritual tie in at the end.