First Presbyterian Church is a beautiful, historic church with excellent teaching and I am blessed to be able to worship there. One Sunday, I was sitting in Church and glanced over at the stained glass windows. I have always thought the windows were very pretty but what I saw that morning was absolutely spectacular. The sun was shining through one of the windows and it looked alive with color. I could hardly keep my eyes off of it. I would keep stealing glances at it so I could remember some of my thoughts about it after I left since I didn’t want to spend my time thinking about it then.

In reflecting back to that experience, I remembered looking at the other windows and how plain and ordinary they looked in comparison. I thought, this is a picture of how our lives are without the light of Jesus in them – we are plain and ordinary. I thought back to a time when I saw that kind of light in a woman I worked with. She was new in the office and just seemed to have an inner beauty and peace – different from anyone else I knew. As we became friends, we discussed spiritual things from time to time. She invited me on a women’s retreat with her church and I was looking forward to going. In the meantime, I had a doctor’s appointment. At the doctor’s office was a nurse that also seemed different. I again observed an inward beauty and peace. I noted it but didn’t think anything else about it…until I got on the bus to go to the women’s retreat. There in one of the seats was the nurse! I thought to myself, what do they have that I don’t? My friend and I had talked about our beliefs and I believed the same things that she did – I had grown up in the church and attended Sunday School regularly until I went to college. But these women had something I wanted. As we talked, I realized I knew about God and scripture, but they actually knew Him as a friend. The next morning high on a mountain I prayed and asked Jesus to come into my heart so I could know Him personally. I no longer wanted to go my own way – I wanted to go His way. I felt different afterward. I felt like that stained glass window looked – on fire and beautiful inside.

I see a lot of clients and often many of them have such a distorted view of who God is. Oh, how I want them to truly know Jesus and feel that inner peace. Too many times I don’t let His light shine through me so they will want that relationship too. May we all strive to be like that stained glass window – alive with color and inner beauty so others will be drawn to Jesus – the one true path to peace.

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you”
(Isaiah 60:1)

Bobbie Lackey

Licensed Professional Counselor View More Posts »
More about Bobbie »