A Lutheran congregation in Harrisonburg, Virginia commissioned me to create designs for a series of eight stained glass windows to be installed in the back of their sanctuary. I would provide the designs and a local stained glass artist was to create them in stained glass.
There were to be eight designs for eight windows. In Christianity, the number eight is usually associated with baptism (for example, baptismal fonts often have eight sides). The eight sides of the typical baptismal font are meant to represent the eight people (Noah and his family) who were saved from the great flood - the implication is that the person being baptised is also passing through water and into salvation on the other side. I wanted to explore this connection. However, during my research I also came across a concept expressed by some theologians (notably Augustine) who identified an "eighth day of creation", or a day of new creation as the day after the sabbath. Augustine connected this idea to the resurrection of Christ, who lay in the tomb on the Sabbath and rose the day after. This complcated concept fascinated me. The connection with water was there, too - the opening lines of the creation story in Genesis 1 mention "the face of the waters" existing before God even begins creating the world. With the blessing of the pastors, I set about creating designs for the eight days of creation
The creation stories (there are two) in Gensis are rich with visual possibilities and challenges (for example, God creates light three days before creating the sun and moon). I picked the creation story from Genesis 1, which features God creating some new element of the universe each day; as opposed to the story in Genesis 2 which is the in-depth story of the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, etc.
I created flat designs in Illustrator which I then passed to a local Harrisonburg artist who crafted them into stained glass. The photos of the completed windows are featured here.
Four panels representing the first four Days of Creation from Genesis 1
Day 1 - "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light."
Day 2 - "And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky."
Day 3 - And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it.
Day 4 - "And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness."
Lower four panels representing creation story days five, six, and seven; and the "eight day of creation" or day of resurrection.
Day 5 - And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’
Day 6 - And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so.
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so.
Day 7 - Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
Day 8 - the day of resurrection. I'm hardly qualified to depict something as mystical as the reinvention of life, the universe, and everything, so I decided to use a metaphor of dawn light stealing over still waters, to mirror the mysterious light on the first day shining on the face of the waters of creation. If you've ever been awake just before sunrise by the shores of a lake, you'll know the kind of light I'm talking about.
On the horizon, the sun and moon are both together in the sky, representing the end of conventional time (and conventional life).
