East Window

By -

All of us need a little assurance. Each of us wants to know that we’ve made the correct decisions, whether large or small. Additionally, many of us want to know that when we’ve made poor decisions, there are still paths available to take us back to where we need to be.
Each Sunday I sit in the center of St. Giles Cathedral as the congregation sings and celebrates her faith together. I often find myself captivated by the east window as my eyes and mind wander in search for something that will speak to me. It is the stunning window pictured below; a 19th century stained-glass depiction of the ascension of Jesus Christ atop his crucifixion.

The window falls within a series reflecting the Gospel narratives. Whether the craftsman (James Ballantine) understood the theological significance of the window, I do not know, but one would be hard pressed to find a more comforting and encouraging image to impress upon a congregation as they commune around the Holy Table each week. Nothing is more appropriate during communion than for our eyes to be drawn to the ascended Lord, in whose life we are hidden and in whose faith we find rest.

The ascension of Christ reminds us that none of us walks alone, neither to the Table where we find mercy nor through daily grinds of life. Just as Christ condescended to earth as the man Jesus of Nazareth, so too this man from Nazareth raised from the dead and ascended to the place of the Father. Often overlooked is this: That having been united with Christ at baptism, so too are we united with Christ in the presence of the Father—a present reality rather than a distant future.

All of us need a little assurance. I need to know that I’ve made the correct decision to move to Edinburgh; to spend all my time and energy engaging the mysteries of God and the faith of the Church. I need to know that the decisions I’ve made throughout my life will neither hold me back nor leave me wandering through the dark. I need to know that Christ’s faith in me is stronger than my faith in him; that when I begin to fail and doubt and give up, that he hasn’t given up on me. 

 Thankfully, there’s the East window.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weekend in Paris

By -
Image
Last weekend I went to Paris to meet up with family and actually meet my cousins. One of the best parts of living here is that this can be a normal sentence! Hopefully we can take advantage of how close we are to the rest of Europe and see all sorts of places. Friday I explored alone... starting on one side of the Seine, then walking across and up to the Musee L'Orangerie to see Monet's Water Lillies... then down through the Jardin des Tuileries ... down and over to Musee Picasso... then back across the Seine to Notre Dame... and into Jardin du Luxembourg. Saturday I explored with the fam. We started at Notre Dame and wandered our way down to the Lourve and up into the Eiffel Tower. There was so much along the path for kids to play on and explore. My cousins are awesome by the way, and it was fun to see my aunt and uncle too, and my grandma who is such a good traveller/travel buddy. In sunny and cloudy weather, the white buildings lined with iron and ivy were very charmin
Read more

France & Germany

By -
Image
How did I never post about our trip last June to France and Germany? This was our first trip outside the UK together and when I originally tried to plan it for the previous summer, doing so just felt so complicated. I felt less sure about the logistics of getting around and mostly I couldn't figure out how to narrow down everything I wanted to show Craig or see myself. Fortunately, as always, I worked it all out perfectly. We rented a car to get from Frankfurt to Colmar which ended up being a really nice drive and not at all complicated until sorting out the parking situation as described by the AirBnB owner. Apparently there's free street parking in certain very random places and apparently we did find one of those places, down the way and around a couple corners, though I went back to check on whether the car had been booted a number of times. And then we were in charming Colmar and aside from me being very cranky about everything for whatever number of reasons (
Read more

Snow Days

By -
Image
They kept saying it was going to snow and I didn't believe them. They've said it before and it hasn't really. But this time it did snow. And snowed and snowed. Basically the country (transportation, schools, shops) shut down for like 3 days. It was the weirdest snow. You'd see a blue sky one minute and then a flurry of flakes and high winds for a while. On and off like that for days. (They say more is coming tonight/tomorrow? We'll see. May just be very cold rain.) The break was much needed--I actually ended up getting so much done that I couldn't have done otherwise as I was supposed to be at a conference for three days. Plus there's not much I like more than sipping a warm drink and watching the snow fall. Except for maybe walking around out in it. 
Read more