Luci Shaw - Thumbprint in the Clay: Divine Marks of Beauty, Order and Grace

Listen to the Green

The Secret Trees

Postcard from the Shore

Polishing the Petoskey Stone

Writing the River

The Angles of Light

The Green Earth

Waterlines

What the Light Was Like

Harvesting Fog

Scape

New and Selected Poems (forthcoming)

The Genesis of It All

Wintersong

A Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends

Friends for the Journey

God in the Dark

Water My Soul

The Crime of Living Cautiously

Adventure of Ascent

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
ivpress.com

2016 byLuci Shaw

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Pressis the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org .

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Portions of this book were previously published in Luci Shaw, Imprint: Thumbprint on the Clay, CIVA (blog), December 17, 2010. Used by permission.

The poem on p.51 is The Blue Eyeball by Luci Shaw. Copyright 2006 by Luci Shaw. Published in What the Light Was Like (WordFarm, 2006). Used by permission from WordFarm.

The poem on p.65 is Tenting, Burr Trail, Long Canyon, Escalante by Luci Shaw. Copyright 2006 by Luci Shaw. Published inWhat the Light Was Like(WordFarm, 2006). Used by permission from WordFarm.

The poem on pp.194-195 is Potter God by Randy White. Published inPoetic Intercessions: Artful Prayers for a Friend(Harmon Press, 2010). Used by permission.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple
Images: andipantz/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-9390-4 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-4457-9 (print)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Shaw, Luci, author.Title: Thumbprint in the clay : divine marks of beauty, order, and grace / Luci Shaw.Description: Downers Grove : InterVarsity Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.Identifiers: LCCN 2015050898 (print) | LCCN 2016001645 (ebook) | ISBN 9780830844579 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780830893904 (eBook)Subjects: LCSH: God (Christianity)--Omniscience--Meditations.Classification: LCC BT131 .S53 2016 (print) | LCC BT131 (ebook) | DDC 242--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015050898

To Tim, Karen, Mike and Ron,

fellow scribes who have imprinted me for good and God

The word that came to Jeremiah from the L ORD :

Come, go down to the potters house, and there I will let you hear my words. So I went down to the potters house, and there he was working at his wheel.

Jeremiah 18:1-3

E vidence is everywhere. Hints. Clues. And our calling is to be detectives. To notice. To respond.

Paleontologists uncover fossils and learn about ancient forms of life. Archaeologists dig to uncover remnants of civilizations that have been layered over in succeeding centuries. We learn a great deal about an ancient people from their pottery, their tools, their metal work, the shards of their lives, the ways they decorate their bodies and their belongings. It is all evidence that needs decoding.

Perhaps youve been reading about the destruction of ancient archaeological sites, demolished because they are considered idolatrous by an invading army. Though these physical evidencestemples, statues, mosaicsof human belief and worship are glorious and valuable, marks of creativity and culture, they are considered by some worthy only of destruction. Communities of witness record their beliefs, hoping they will survive. The Chinese terracotta soldiers. The Mayan temples buried in the Central American forests. The pyramids and their hidden tombs for pharaohs. Stonehenge. The testament of history is not easily obliterated or ignored.

Say we notice a series of large paw prints in the snow crust along the highway up to Mt. Baker in the state of Washington. We pay attention, reminded that this is mountain lion territory. Or the wound of scraped-off bark left on a tree near our wilderness tent reminds us that we live in proximity to other created beings. Some large creature has left its markevidence that we share space with other members of Gods creation. We become aware of our surroundings by attentiveness, relieved that black bears and human beings prefer to keep their distance and need to respect each others boundaries.

Wherever there is life it leaves evidence like the paw prints of the cougar, the rough scrape from a bear paw on bark, the writings and artifacts of human history.

There is also a spiritual dimension, an unseen but very authentic reality that will alert us to evidence beyond our senses. We call it transcendence, or the supernatural. Gods Spirit is powerful enough to change the way we see the world and respond to it.

We may find ourselves in an ancient church or cathedral, and as our attention is drawn to the Gothic arches, the buttresses, the altar, the font, the nave shaped like a boat and its pews (that remind us of our rowing toward God), the stories illumined in the brilliant stained glass windows, we begin to realize that every detail is significant, planned and placed to remind us worshipers of unseen realities. And holy space is made more holy by our sacramental worship, our partaking of wafer and wine. Our passing of peace within this community of grace.

None of our doings and beings are meaningless. And because we human beings have eyes and ears and perceptive minds, we draw conclusions about the evidence we see, whatever information we can deduce. Our senses allow us to observe and consider and sort and differentiate, picking up significant clues, leading us to certain conclusions. And our art or poetry brings them into cleaner focus.

In this book Ive made serious attempts at decoding some evidences for purpose and design and beauty in our created universe. This is our planet and here we are, integral parts of a system rich with evidence. These clues lead me to believe in a Creator who leaves his prints on our environment, our history and our personal lives. Our challenge is to be aware and invite God to speak to us through the fabric of what is made, what has happened, inviting our enthusiastic response, our co-creating with our Maker.

I t is a Northwest morning, early.