The Creator and Creatress sat together on the banks of a little spring, sculpting lumps of clay they had scooped from the ground. They kneaded and molded in silence, dipping their fingers occasionally into the water. At first they made two perfectly oval eggs, and then they shaped five pointed stars from the center outwards. As they worked, they sang. And as they sang, their fingers moved to the rhythms of their songs, blurring their fingerprints all over the clay.
They fashioned limbs and heads from the points of the stars. They formed elegant curves and lines. They rounded parts here and straightened parts there. They increased parts here and trimmed parts there. They used their fingernails to delineate patterns of hair and sinews of muscle. They carved intricate ears like the insides of seashells. They painstakingly trimmed the ends of the limbs with fingers and toes. And all the while, they sang. And all of the while, their song infused the clay with light and remembrances of the sound.
They adorned the figures with concave and convex parts to fit together in exalted ways. They garnished the eyes with delicate lashes and the lips with a glossy finish. They patted and pressed, smoothed and engraved, and decorated the figures all over with the tiniest of hairs knowing this would heighten the sense of touch. They traced spirals on the pads of the fingers and went so far as to bedeck the bottoms of the toes with swirling patterns of widening ripples.
And as they worked, they sang. And as they sang, enlivening the clay with pigment and breath, they could not help but weep. They could not help but render these First Ones beautiful. They could not help but impress them with passions and crown them in glory. They could not help but pour over them tears of devotion. They could not help but establish them with strength. They could not help but invest them with power. They could not help but saturate them with creativity. They could not help but embellish them with little kisses and lavish them with hopes and dreams. And finally, they were finished.
“In your image,” said the Creator, bowing to the Creatress with the woman he had formed.
“In your image,” said the Creatress, bowing to the Creator with the man she had formed.
And the First Ones stood there, blinking in the light. As things began to focus they found each other’s hands and looked deeply into each other’s eyes. Mesmerized with holiness, they traced each other’s faces and then, for the first of countless times, looked up at their Makers in wonder.
Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog