. . . God created the heavens and the earth, says Genesis 1:1.
Later, says Genesis 2:7, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground. That dust had just been watered by a mist that "went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
James Weldon Johnson imagines it like this:
"Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen."
"The Creation" from God's Trombones
I don't care how many times I blow on a clay pot, it's not going to become a living soul. But I understand toiling over a lump of clay and feeling it take shape, take form, and become more than it was before.
In the process, I am becoming more than I was before.
Want to know how I began the clay journey? Read one of my first posts, Credit Where Credit is Due for the back story.
