Becoming a Window through Thy Grace

Spiritual Sunday

George Herbert is the author of this lovely 17th-century poem about stained glass windows.  As so often with this humble Anglican rector, he is filled with self doubts, seeing himself as “brittle crazy glass,”  and wonders how anyone can be worthy enough to preach God’s eternal word.  But he is inspired by the windows in his church and imagines himself becoming a window himself.  God’s holy light will burn colors into him and shine through him so that he can communicate His holy word.  If he were not filled with God’s inspiration, then the messages would come out “wat’rish, bleak, and thin” and strike only the ear, not the conscience. But because he experiences awe when gazing upon God’s beauty and grace, he can communicate that beauty and grace to others.

The Windows

Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?
He is a brittle crazy glass;
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window, through thy grace.

 But when thou dost anneal in glass thy story,
Making thy life to shine within
The holy preachers, then the light and glory
More reverend grows, and more doth win;
Which else shows waterish, bleak, and thin.

 Doctrine and life, colors and light, in one
When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and awe; but speech alone
Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
And in the ear not conscience, ring.