If you have noticed the window to the south of the altar in All Saints, you may have thought, ‘What a jumble!’, or ‘Why is that man on the left so happy?’ Or ‘What is that cheery creature sticking its tongue out on the top right?’ Perhaps even, ‘Is that really two eyes and a big nose staring out at me from the centre panel?’

Our lives can look a bit of a jumble, random joys and griefs, chance meetings and events that set us on one course or another, things we are proud of and things we regret.

At Easter, we remember Jesus’ death. At only 33, it can look like a tragedy, a life unfinished, 30 years of the ups and downs of small-town woodworking, Torah study and family life. Then a sudden revelation of his calling, followed by only three years of wandering around teaching and healing, random encounters with all kinds of people- men, women, children, poor, rich, sick, wicked, religious, clever, Jewish, Samaritan, Roman, individuals and groups. People who loved his message and people who hated it. Disciples who misunderstood it. Happy times and distressing times. So much left to do. So many more people to teach and heal. All cut short by the wickedness of his powerful enemies, while his friends fled. I wonder if Jesus himself, in pain, facing death, was tempted to think perhaps it had achieved too little?

But we know now that amazing things were to follow- the resurrection, and countless followers over thousands of years, across the whole world, teaching and caring and healing, carrying on his work, sharing the light of Christ.

The pieces of our window were once part of whole mediaeval stained glass works of art. They were shattered in the iconoclasm of the Reformation. But they were gathered up, and by a master’s hand, in 1870-71 were brought together to create a new window, recognisable but in a different form, which the light shines through again.

The window, like our lives, can look a bit of a jumble, but God’s light shining through them can transform the jumble into something that inspires. Nothing is wasted. And perhaps one day, in our own resurrection, we will see the whole picture…