When early Christians began to use stained glass in European churches, its purpose was not simply decorative but instructive. In a largely illiterate population, depicting Biblical scenes through stained glass was one way that the clergy of the day helped their people to remember the stories they heard in church.

This capacity for instruction is one of the main reasons that we chose to install four stained glass windows in our sanctuary, a project that we just completed this past week. 

We hope that as the Gospel message is preached week after week, these windows will help reinforce the story visually as it’s being received audibly. Collectively, the windows tell the story of the Bible in big movements, starting with the creation and fall of man in the Garden of Eden, moving to the cross and empty tomb of Jesus, to the giving of the Spirit and the sacraments, and lastly to the final victory and return of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

We hope that as the Gospel message is preached week after week, these windows will help reinforce the story visually as it’s being received audibly.

One of the primary audiences that we had in mind for the windows was the children of our church. To help them understand the story that the windows tell, we also used the simple outlines from each window design to create four coloring sheets. Each coloring sheet has a brief write-up of the specific part of the story that each window conveys.

Written at a child’s level, we hope these descriptions will help equip parents to teach their children the story of the Gospel each week.

First Window - The Creation and Fall of Man

When God created the world, he created the first humans: Adam and Eve. He put them in a beautiful garden called Eden and told them everything he made was theirs to enjoy. The one thing God told them NOT to do was eat the fruit from one tree in the garden called the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” If they did, they would surely die! God’s enemy Satan hated Adam and Eve and he lied to them. He came to them in the form of a serpent and said that if they ate the fruit, they would not die but they’d be like God, knowing good and evil. Sadly, Adam and Eve believed Satan and they ate the fruit. 

Because they disobeyed God, Adam and Eve had to leave the beautiful garden. But even worse, they had committed the first sin against God. Like a sickness, sin came into the world and corrupted everything. Thankfully, God told them that one day, he would send a rescuer who would defeat Satan and make everything perfect again! Until then, God’s people were supposed to sacrifice animals to him, (like a little lamb), to help them remember that sin brings death. When the rescuer would come, he would do what the blood of the animals could not do: take away their sin.

Second Window - Christ’s Death and Resurrection

For many years, God’s people waited for the rescuer. They endured hardships and cried lots of tears. Finally, after almost 4,000 years, the rescuer arrived! Jesus is the great King of the Universe; the Son of God. He is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. He was born as a human baby and lived a perfect, sinless life, obeying God the Father in every way. Jesus grew up to be a man and started teaching about his Father God. Many people loved Jesus. He performed amazing miracles. He even brought dead people back to life! 

But not everyone liked Jesus. There were rulers and leaders who didn’t love God and decided to kill Jesus instead of following him. But little did they know that this was actually God’s plan. God knew that the only way to take away the sin of the world was for a sinless man to willingly take the punishment for sin and die in our place. They condemned Jesus to die upon a cross. After he died, they laid him in a tomb and rolled a big stone over the opening to keep people out. But on the third day, the stone had been rolled away and Jesus was gone! He had risen from the dead, conquering our enemies: Satan, sin, and death!

Third Window - The Giving of the Spirit and the Sacraments

After Jesus rose from the grave, he appeared to his disciples and many other people, too. They were overjoyed! Jesus explained to them how the entire Bible was all pointing toward him and how they could be saved from their sin by trusting him for their salvation. He told these first Christians that they were supposed to proclaim the message of his death and resurrection to the whole world, teaching the nations to worship him and obey all that he commanded them to do. 

One of the ways that they were supposed to obey him was by being baptized with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Another way to obey Jesus is to eat bread and drink wine when we worship together to remember his body and blood that he gave and shed for us. Jesus also promised his disciples that they would receive the power to obey him from the same Holy Spirit who had descended upon him in the appearance of a dove at his own baptism. After 40 days, Jesus was taken back into heaven on a cloud in front of his disciples. Before he left, he promised to return, and when he does he will make all things new.

Fourth Window - The Glorious Return of Christ

After he left, his disciples took the good news about Jesus the rescuer everywhere! People all over the world started to believe in Jesus! And as they did, God made them part of his family, a group of people called the Church. Over many years, the Church spread over the whole earth and now includes you and me! We are part of God’s family because Jesus died for our sins on the cross and forgave us. And now we get to help spread the good news too! 

Do you remember how Jesus promised his disciples that he would return one day? When he does, he won’t come back as a little baby. This time, Jesus will come as a conquering king. He will have a book sealed with seven seals that only he can open containing the names of all his people. The Lamb of God will return to claim his people and the whole world as his own, banishing Satan, sin, and death forever. And together with all the Christians who ever lived, we will dwell with God for eternity in his perfect kingdom, having been raised from death by Jesus. With all God’s people, we look forward to that day eagerly and we pray “Come, Lord Jesus!” Amen.