There ought to be a sign in front of St. Paul's Lutheran Church that reads, "Daydreamers Welcome."

(Crookston 2007) As Pastor Bill Reck will attest to, everyone, and not just the youngsters, daydreams from time to time during church services. Parishioners and visitors to the church of late have caught sight of something colorful and mesmerizing to focus their thoughts on: 10 stained glass panels embedded into the windows along the south wall of the sanctuary, designed by David Hetland.

"Even my son, who was home visiting recently, told me he now looks at the windows when his mind wanders," said Reck.

The St. Paul's project turned out to be one of Hetland's last, after a career of creating religious murals, mosaics and stained glass that spanned some 40 years and earned him a reputation as one of the nation's foremost liturgical artists. He died Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006, at his Fargo home shortly after attending Easter morning church services.

Ironically, Reck read a note from Hetland on Easter that had come in Saturday's mail. He did some final tweaking to the project. The note said: "Just in time for Easter comes this symbol of the resurrection, hope you like the changes. Saw the guys from Classic Glass loading the clear panels into their truck so it looks like you're progressing. Hope you have a blessed Easter."

A story in the works
Hetland created many stained glass projects during his lifetime, with each window designed to tell a story to viewers of all ages and interests, "dancing with color and texture and exploding with meaningful symbolism," according to one critic's view.

The artist came on board with the St. Paul's window project in early 2005 after giving a committee several suggestions to spruce up the single-pane windows that were intended to be only temporary when the church was built in 1960 and frosted up every winter. However, with a price tag of a quarter million dollars, full stained-glass windows were out of the question, Reck explained.

Then, committee member John Reitmeier came up with the notion of filling the windows only partially with stained glass, which carried a price tag of around $70,000.

"That was very reasonable," said Reck. "I kind of liked the idea of being able to look out the window and get a clear view, yet still have this spectacular story shine through. I have a feeling that full stained glass windows wouldn't have been as effective."

Hetland met with the committee a few times before drawing up the designs.

"He always carried a pencil and notepad so he could write down everything that came about," Reck said. "The first question he asked was, 'What Bible verses do you want?'"

Much discussion ensued. Some church members wanted only the Old Testament depicted, from creation to Jerusalem. Others had ideas like Luther's Catechism, the 10 Commandments, Apostle's Creed and the Sacraments. Hetland finally suggested themes from Saint Paul's life, the church's namesake. The overall theme would be "blessings."
"This was a perfect fit for us," Reck asserted.

The original plan was to have the project completed in November 2005, but Hurricane Katrina, among other factors, ended up delaying its completion by a year. The wide array glass colors needed didn't help either.

"Colored glass firings only occur at certain intervals, so we had to wait until the right colors were available," he added.

While Hetland created the artwork for his windows, Classic Glass, Inc. of Fargo, which employs several stained glass artisans, pieced them together and installed them.

The congregation has been very pleased with the results, Reck said.  "My only complaint is he could have charged 10 times more for such exquisite work," he quipped. "We would've been very happy with it."

Visual parable
"Not all of us are verbal people. Not all of us get everything we need to know out of the sermon Sunday morning," Reck quoted Hetland as saying. "That's why the stained glass and the architecture of our worship spaces are important. The artist acts as an interpreter of concepts that are difficult. We're asked to deal with issues of faith and grace and forgiveness, so I took it upon myself to learn how I could help communicate those things. Christ had the same problem in his journey, and what he did was resort to parables. I call the work that I do 'visual parables.'"

Reck can effortlessly point to each panel and describe its specific theme, recite the Bible verse cited and explain all the symbolism. Half of the panels come from the Old Testament, the other half from the New. They go from beginning to end of the Bible.

The first window of St. Paul's "visual parable" begins with creation, citing a verse from Genesis. It depicts the various elements of creation and life, including a sugar beet and an eagle.

"David Hetland liked to bring in local symbols," Reck explained. "The eagle, a very Christian symbol, also represents UMC (the University of Minnesota, Crookston) and America."

Some, like the eighth panel with "miracles" as the theme, are more obvious than others. It depicts the two fishes and five loaves of bread that fed 5,000 men. Others might not be so apparent to everyone, like the promise-themed fourth panel with a rainbow and seasons.

The last window, Reck surmised, was Hetland's favorite, with the theme of salvation and the Lamb of God pertaining to the resurrection and to Easter. Each panel could be connected in some way to at least one Christian holiday or observance.

"They're not meant for everyone to understand instantly," he added. "You need to think outside the box, look at other meanings of each symbol. You can even form your own interpretation."

About Hetland
Hetland, who was 58 when he died, was known around Minnesota and North Dakota for his 56-foot by 20-foot murals at Concordia College (Moorhead) Christmas Concerts, which he worked on since 1965 and began designing in 1978. He designed these in a paint-by-numbers format with a stained-glass look so volunteers could assist in the painting process. More than 20,000 people would see the murals each year at Concordia and at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. The 2006 concert was dedicated to Hetland's life.

Among his noted works is the Jerusalem Cross, commissioned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, even made it to Pope John Paul II. One of his mosaics also hangs in the entrance of the ELCA's churchwide offices in Chicago.

One might say Hetland was living on borrowed time for the last decade, having been diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension in 1997 and winning a battle with cancer in 2004. Yet, his work seemed to intensify during that time, Reck said.

"He had a gift from God to translate scriptures into wondrous works of art that speak to everyone. The world lost a good man, but his work lives on in many ways."  "I once told David, 'You've preached to more people in any given city than any pastor,'" Reck asserted. "Now we have two people preaching at our church services each Sunday - David Hetland and me."