Gifts of Glass

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3 (KJV)

This year, I tried to make a lot of my Christmas gifts out of glass. While most of the business card holders turned out to be a flop, (literally, they just fell over on each other and made a lumpy mess), the lidded glass boxes turned out okay. I had to grind down some edges because I over fired them, but all but one fused nicely with flat bottoms and lids that fit snuggly. I also made plates in squares and rectangles by placing the glass in a mold to melt into a form. The iridescent glass worked well for that project. They look like rainbows when the sun shines on them. I also experimented with jewelry, pendants, bracelets, and pins. Some of the color combinations are pretty, particularly the ones that I did not fully fuse. You can see the individual pieces of glass. The dichroic and iridescent glass pendants are the best. The dichroic glass is clear, but has waves of pink, blue and green depending on which way you hold them to the light. Putting it on top of a piece of translucent blue, green, red or pink makes the colors even more vivid. The iridescent also reflects the light and is in a variety of colors, purple, blue, red, gold and green. I particularly like the purple iridescent ones that I made in the shape of a square, but hung on its side in a diamond shape. Sun catchers in the form of stars as well as wind chimes of butterflies, dragonflies and bees are bits of fancy that took longer than I had planned to make, but are pretty hanging inside or out. I am not quite sure about the mix of glass in the sun catchers, but then, I am just learning what blends and what I should avoid pairing together. I enjoyed creating all of these little items, but now that time has arrived to start giving them, I am very nervous. Particularly, after I sold several pendants to a friend, and she has changed her mind twice bringing them back to exchange for something else. What if the recipients don’t like them? What if they think, “Why would she give me this ugly looking stuff? What am I supposed to do with it?” What if they think that they have to wear it just to please me when in fact they would rather just regift it to the person who annoys them the most? I am not just giving something off a rack or an impersonal gift card, but a piece of me. Those glass trinkets reflect more than light, they reflect who I am and if they are not received well, I could be rejected, too. How much more must God feel despised when we treat irreverently or refuse to accept the greatest gift He gave us, His Son? Jesus is more than a good man; He is God in the flesh. Accept Him with a grateful heart this Christmas Season.