Alleluia.
His children gather.
And we are
clothed
in righteousness.

Alleluia.
His children gather.
And we are
clothed
in righteousness.
The temple is dark. Noisy with chants. Crowds press through. Men, women, children bowing before multiple idols.
Shiny cloth drapes several of these gods. Gods of stone and clay and metal.
I watch a father guide his young son from one graven image to the next. Showing him how to bow, what to say, where to place the offering.
A way of life. Inherited. Passed down from one generation to the next.
Standing there in the dark, I feel the weight of it.
I keep it on my desk. This broken piece of a red clay. What remained after the common clay jar fell off the shelf one day. My one semester in pottery class taught me a lot about clay and kilns. And the fragility of earthen vessels. One small pebble could break apart a potter’s masterpiece as it was formed on the wheel or as it baked in the kiln.