Flashes of Blue

 This little bird is very familiar to me; it's an eastern bluebird. I grew up with them in Iowa and continued seeing them in Minnesota. I love their bright blue!

I'm totally unfamiliar with the birds in our new home. (And the plants. And the trees. And the animals.) But I have repeatedly seen a beautiful grey-blue bird, a little bigger than the eastern bluebird. The other day, I finally asked what kind of bird it was. I'm pretty sure the guy I asked knew his plants, birds, etc.

He said it was a bluebird. I figured he meant a western bluebird, so I looked it up. Nope. Then I discovered that there was a mountain bluebird... HAS to be, I thought! No way. I cannot find an identified picture of the bird I'm seeing. One of its characteristics is that when it flies, its tail feathers flash a more pronounced blue. I love seeing those flashes of blue! (I'll let you know when I figure out what kind of bird it is.)

I was watching a couple of these birds this morning on my walk. Their flashes of blue reminded me of several comments made on a couple of photos I posted on Facebook this week. The first is a photo of a stained glass cross, done in blues. The second is the same design, but done in purple tones. Here are the two photos:

I am making these crosses in many colors!

$40.00, plus tax and shipping

The thing is, I've had lots of comments about how beautiful the purple one is, but not so many about the blue. I realized pretty quickly that this discrepancy has to do with the quality of the light coming through the cross, not the actual beauty of the two pieces.

So I took another photo of the blue piece:

If you're interested in a cross, email me at agoginglass@yahoo.com

Much better. Now the blue flashes are coming through! The colors are not perfectly true to life, but neither are the purples.

The cross measures approximately 11x9 inches.

I took one more photo of the two crosses in exactly the same light at the same time:












I think that the beauty of stained glass comes through based on the quality of the light behind it. Just like people: The true beauty of the people around you is based on the quality of the light behind them. If a person is full of God's glory and grace, how could s/he not shine?

I pray that I allow God's light to shine through me, in my words, in my actions, and in my art. I want to flash brilliant colors to bring glory to God!