Since we are a church, I'm sure the stained glass part makes at least a little sense. Our church has a unique set of stained glass windows that were donated by members of the church for the old building in 1957. All but three of the windows were rescued from the fire that took the old building in 2012 and are incorporated into our new building. One of the windows, the lily window, is the background picture of this blog. Our windows, because of their sentimental ties, are irreplaceable. I can't tell you how grateful and overjoyed we were when each window was brought to the church, repaired and refurbished and installed in their rightful places. Each time a window was put back in place, it brought tears to every eye.
The railroad tracks are a little less obvious, but in my opinion, no less important. Our church has a long history with the railroad. According to More About Summit, written by Randall South, a prominent member of our church, the church's first building was a log structure built in 1878 on land deeded to the church by its members. The railroad in this area was put in place just eight years before. When a spark from a passing train set a bridge and the church on fire in 1908, the congregation rebuilt the church with a frame building that was funded with compensation from the Illinois Central Railway Company. This frame building lasted until the church building I grew up in replaced it in 1957.
It's rare that a day goes by when the sound of a train's blowing whistle or churning wheels doesn't punctuate a Sunday service or church function. The railroad track curves past the cemetery and around the churchyard. Trains chug by carrying empty cars, heavy loads of coal, the occasional boxcar, and sometimes even military equipment. The sounds of clacking cars and locomotive wheels squealing on the steel track never bothers our congregation, however. We have grown so used to the sound that it's a background lull, something that is always there but never noticed until someone points it out---much like the way the Holy Spirit works in our lives, as a comforting presence that we may not see until we reflect at the end of the day.
When I decided, with the support of our lay leader, to begin a blog for the church, I asked for advice on what the name should be. After all, a catchy name is one of the most crucial aspects of gaining an audience. I was walking up the hill to the church with my mama, and a big green engine with no cars came trucking by and went around the bend. It blew its whistle, loud and long, and in the distance, after it passed, the whistle sounded again. As we went down the sidewalk to the door, we talked about how strange it was that the train wasn't pulling anything and how odd it was that the engineer blew the whistle in two places that trains didn't normally whistle. As she opened the door, my mama asked me if I had ever managed to think of a name for the blog and said that she thought it should have something to do with the stained glass windows.
"Stained Glass and Railroad Tracks," I said. "How about that?"
The name stuck, just like our church stuck by the railroad through one fire, and just like our congregation stuck with the church after a second fire.
Stained Glass and Railroad Tracks. It's all about our history.
