Pottery
I love pottery. Don't you!?
A skilled potter uses clay: an unformed, dull-looking lump of nothingness, and molds it into something not only beautiful, but also useful. You may have heard that God is the "potter" and that you're the "clay," but have you ever really thought about what this means??
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You are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. - Isaiah 64:8
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The potter shapes the vessel, holding it in his hands while the shaping takes place. The potter stains the vessel, giving it a unique appearance. The potter pushes and pulls the clay, using tools to create texture and designs in the clay. Sometimes, the potter even has to smash the lump of clay completely to simply start over with the whole project. Yet, the whole time, the clay is in the potter's hand.
With that, here's today's encouragement:
We're all like lumps of clay. Dull, unformed, and ugly.
Huh.
That's not super lovely to hear, is it?
*but thankfully, the encouragement doesn't stop there...*
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*Joke break*
"The lame pottery jokes out there... they're just kiln me."
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AMAZINGLY, God doesn't see that ugliness and nothingness in you. He sees the potential for beauty and usefulness. Just like a potter looks at a lump of clay and sees potential for something beautiful, God looks at the mess of your life and sees the vessel that He'll make out of you - if only you let him be the one at the potter's wheel.
Also, have you ever thought about how the different types of stains are what make pottery unique and beautiful? The sharpness of the tools used, the prodding of the clay, the many times the wheel spins around and around... these are all things that form clay into vessels.
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It's the stains in our lives; the sharp moments, the prodding moments, and the times when we feel pressure - where spin after spin after spin, we are created by God, our potter, into beautiful vessels for His use.
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In Jeremiah 18, the prophet Jeremiah is told to go to the potter's house in town. He is supposed to go and watch a potter do his daily work. Something mundane. Something "normal." Just a guy doing his job. And, God speaks to Jeremiah through the simple action of watching a craftsman do his daily work.
"So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do." - Jeremiah 18
It was GOOD for the potter to ruin what had been made, simply because he had a different vision for the vessel. When your plans change, trust your potter. When you feel ruined, trust your potter. When you feel like a broken vessel, unable to pour yourself out to others, you need to find restoration in Jesus Christ. God can do with you as a potter does with the clay. If only you let him be the one at the wheel.
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"Can I not do with you as this potter has done? Declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand." - Jeremiah 18