Editorial March 31, 1997 Issue

Fired clay and a new dimension

William E. Moody

At Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, potter Gladys Paquin continues the Native American tradition of handcoiled pottery with intricately painted designs. She speaks humbly about the religious and spiritual influences on her work. She feels that she was taken from nothing and made a potter. "Pottery is a lot lot like your relationship with God," Gladys says. "God molds you and makes you and puts you in the fire."

She considers the inspiration that has directed the designs on her pottery: "The story on one pot was the Song of David. Another one I've kept, it has a butterfly—I was a worm and the Lord came and changed me. The stairsteps mean the new dimension I found."^{Stephen Trimble, Talking with the Clay: The Art of Pueblo Pottery (Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1993), p. 81 .}

When we turn our hearts and lives over to God, it's always a transforming experience. As the Old Testament book of Isaiah affirms: "... now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand" (64:8).The "clay" of our lives is molded by God's will; wonderful designs are created; He purifies our thoughts and desires with the refining and strengthening fire of His love. And so we are made new. We see butterflies instead of worms. We discover something more of our true, spiritual nature as children of God.

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