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The central theme in the left lancet is God's creation of Adam. Here we see the creating hands of God emerging from the circle. We also see pictured the passage of breath from the mouth of God to the mouth of man. 'God breathed into his nostrils and he became a living soul.'
Below Adam we see yet another phase of Creation, that of the animals of the field, the fish and foliage. Above God's head are stars and planets and birds flying through the air.
The creation of the world of things was a perfect success, but since God was a God of holiness, His creation of man had to be tested. Would man believe the Word of God or would he, lacking faith in his Creator, choose to act upon his own judgment and desire? Alas, his faith in God was not adequate; the left predella shows Adam and Eve hurriedly leaving the Garden in sin and disgrace, pursued by the Angel of Expulsion. Near them is the symbol of the foot crushing the Serpent, the foot surrounded by the Christus Nimbus. 'It shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel,' (GENESIS 3:15) for 'as in Adam all die, even so, in Christ shall all be made alive.' (I COR. 15:22).
Because this window presents the Creation and the Fall of Man, as well as the need for and the promise of a Saviour, it serves to suggest all that is to follow in the other windows.
The Faith Lancet of this window depicts the Angel of God interrupting Abraham as he attempted to carry out God's command that he sacrifice his beloved son, Issac. As the Angel of God arrests the hand of Abraham, he ends forever the offering of human sacrifice among the Jews. (GENESIS 37:28)
The lower predella shows the boy Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers for twenty pieces of silver. (GENESIS 37:28).
The symbols in the traceries at the top of this window represent four of the tribes of Israel: the sea, Reuben; the ass, Issachar; the hind, Naphtali; and the vine and the palm, Ephriam and Manasseh. |