A traveler visited a church in Germany famous for its stained-glass windows. The exterior was plain, there was no beauty in the windows from the outside—there never is.
The first look within was a disappointment. The guide bade him go forward and look eastward where the sun was rising. Lo, a marvelous vision broke upon him of Jesus in the temple with the doctors. It was called “The Glory of Christ.” He was filled with ecstasy.
The guide asked him to return about noon. Another window flamed in the sun with Christ walking upon the sea. He was requested to come yet again at sunset, and the rays fell upon Christ on the cross, amazingly touching and convincing.
Many people see nothing to admire in the Christian church. It is a disappointment, a fraud, a delusion. There are always people who see it from without. There are some inside who view it from the wrong angle, or on a dark and foggy day; they see only the pews and the floor. Those who come inside and look toward the sun see the glory of Christ, His power, and His salvation. —Onward, Reprinted in Golden Nuggets of Thought, Volume 1, Compiled by Ezra L. Marlar, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, Utah (1946).
It is sometimes discouraging to speak with people who have such a tainted view of religion. It is easy to see how that happens since a lot of evil things have been done in the name of religion. Evil can permeate anything if we let it. If we look toward the sun (better yet the Son)—go to the root—its pure beginnings—we find something quite different. We see a Heavenly Father and His wonderful Son who love us and want us to return home.
Looking from without you can see nothing. It’s like trying to see the raspberry filling of a frosted chocolate cake. Cutting the cake open is the only way to find the sweetness of the berry.
I spent many years on the inside looking from the wrong angle. There were many dark and foggy days for me. Forget the pews and the floor—all I saw was the mud tracked inside by the worshippers. I was not looking toward the sun; nor did I want to look at the Son. Looking at either would be an admission that I was wrong. The bitter taste in my mouth and the hardness in my heart had to be replaced by the sweetness of the gospel before I could look up at the brightness and glory of the sun/Son. When I did, I felt that same ecstasy that the traveler to the German church felt.
Living in a human judgmental world, we often can’t see the forest through the trees. We not only judge each other, but the very God who created us. We blame God for all the evil we see in the world, when the reality is that we are the ones who do the evil, prompted by the master of all evil, Satan himself. Our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to cease to do evil and to follow His Son back to Him. It must be a horribly sad thing for Him to watch as we pull away from Him and fall into Satan’s trap. Oh, the tears that must be shed for us!
The Christian church is only a fraud if we make it fraudulent. If we follow Christ and live our lives as Christ lived His life, we will not be a disappointment to ourselves, or to our Heavenly Father. It is the human race that creates the delusion. We muddy the waters. We turn the good into evil. We also are given the power to turn that around. We have agency—the power to repent, let go of our evil ways, show love to our fellow travelers on earth, and go about doing good works.
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As a parent, I gave my children a lot of freedom to choose. They had boundaries that I would not allow them to cross for their safety and the safety of others, but they were given a great deal of freedom to choose for themselves. I’ve always said that children are capable of doing much more than we give them credit for doing. They have talents and abilities given to them by their Creator that as parents we don’t even know about. Sometimes my children made good choices, and sometimes not so good choices. Occasionally, they messed things up royally. On the whole, though, they have done very well. Heavenly Father created wonderful human beings, and we all have the light of Christ within us. If we are taught to look for that light within ourselves, we will eventually find it. We will undoubtedly stumble and fall a few times along the way, but we’ll make it.
Look around you at your fellow travelers. See the light within them. Whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, agnostic, atheist, white, black, or brown, see the good that is inside them. Don’t forget to look at the good inside yourself. See the world as it was meant to be, and then do your best to make it happen. Look to the sun and the Son. As we all do this, we will be healed, and we will be on the path back to the One who gave us life.
Tudie Rose is a mother of four and grandmother of ten in Sacramento, California. You can find her on Twitter as @TudieRose. She blogs as Tudie Rose at http://potrackrose.wordpress.com. She has written articles for Familius. You will find a Tudie Rose essay in Lessons from My Parents, Michele Robbins, Familius 2013, at http://www.familius.com/lessons-from-my-parents.
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