Our Stained Glass Window at Bethel Lutheran Church

For centuries, stained glass has been put in churches to glorify God. Initially, it was used to help tell Bible stories to people who couldn't read. I too want to tell a story, but not a Bible story, a Bethel story.

The bevel cluster in the center near the outside border ring represents Baptism, the first sacrament of the Lutheran church, and your entry into the brotherhood of the church. This symbolizes your being part of the Bethel church family.

The second sacrament is the only other bevel cluster in the window, and it stands for communion. A sacrament that Pastor John has emphasized by celebrating it at every service. Notice how clear and pure it is and then as you go out into the world represented by the colored glass, you lose the purity and must come back and be cleansed through the communion process again. So in honor of Pastor John, I dedicate the theme of the windows:

"Forgiveness through cleansing".

The 10 red jewels represent the law of the ten commandments encircling the sacraments.  The purple and gold colors were chosen to symbolize the royalty of God. The red water glass represents the blood that Christ paid for your salvation. The blue background represents the tranquility of the Holy Ghost to complete the trinity.

There is at least one visible flaw in the windows to symbolize that nothing is as perfect as God.

Finally, I wanted to tie the idea of becoming a saint through faith in eternal life into the window. So if you look at the empty cross between the windows, symbolizing a risen Christ, and draw a circle around the quarter panels together there is a circle around the cross. In the border, I placed a clear jewel at every lead intersection that formed a cross. This symbolizes every member of Bethel Lutheran Church and every believer in Christ that has gone before us that are now saints. This gives us the name for these windows,

"A Saint on Every Cross".

I dedicate the name of the windows to Tom Meador's son and all other saints that have gone on before us.

Brian Dahl, Glass Artist

1999