At the art museum in Medellin, Colombia in March, I caught a ceramics exhibit that began with an installation showing a patchwork of clay. I live at a pottery where we use ceramic dishes every day, every meal and throughout the house. I am familiar with many kinds of clay and the processes of mixing, making, wedging, throwing, hand building, glazing, slipping, sculpting, bisquing and firing it.
I particularly love this installation for all the colors of earth that are visible. For me, I connect with clay. Genesis tells us that G-d took clay from the ground and shaped the first human being and blew life, spirit, breath into us. We are all made of the same stuff, with the richness of all this brilliant diversity, despite the variety of experiences, hopes, despairs, gifts, graces, traumas and prayers.
Some fundamentalists want folks to fear the fire of G-d, but I know G-d is a potter. I know that fire is what transforms earth into art. I have seen how fire evokes the beauty within and makes that which is fragile and unusable into something lasting and strong. G-d tells us not to be afraid…
So, fear not, dear ones.
Our Holy One is the maker and shaper of earth and form, the breath of spirit and Pentecost fire, the hands that hold and cherish the everyday pieces of created beauty in our lives.
