Dear Daughters,
I’ll be throwing pottery Friday if you want to come and watch, said the text from your cousin Charlene last week.
Throwing pottery? I knew she was a potter, but had not heard that term before. At any rate I decided to go and see her work as a novice.
So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands…….Jeremiah 18:3
When I arrived she was working on a partially finished bowl and had just a few finishing touches before it would be ready for the kiln. Upside down on the wheel, she carefully trimmed away some excess clay so the bowl would be just right. She was careful, yet still some chunks broke loose and the beautifully crafted rim she had molded was marred. Charlene simply chuckled and said,
Well, sometimes we think we are this, but then we are that.
She threw the broken chunks into a nearby 5-gallon blue bucket, not even lamenting about the change of plans, but remarked,
Nothing is wasted. All the mistakes just go into this bucket and we use them for a later project.
Immediately I thought about Romans 8:28 “…and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose…” How often have I mourned and become angry about things that have happened to me, how I have not embraced the pain, the grief and the hurt that have come. I have simply wanted the agony to go away. I could see no point except pain in what was happening, and who wants that?
But God, our perfect Potter, wastes nothing. He saves the pain for a later project. Sometimes we think we are one thing, but God has another plan, a better plan. So a few chips get knocked off and He continues to do his good work.
Charlene used lots of different tools but her favorite was a little 89-cent sponge from the grocery store. A simple tool, but so effective. With it she could smooth the clay or make thin little lines all around the pot. She spoke,
Any good tool has many purposes.
Just think of all the tools God uses on you – your husband, your children, annoying workers at the office, rude neighbors and apartment dwellers, slow thinkers and movers. Every one of them has a purpose, to help mold us to become more patient, kind, generous, less boastful, more humble – more like Jesus.
After the first pot was finished Charlene started another vase beginning with a single lump of clay. She threw it on the blue plastic bat which was attached to the wheel head. It didn’t stick the first time so she threw it again, adhering well. But there it was on the edge of the bat. Even I knew that this was not going to work. So a few more times of throwing and it landed, with a little encouragement, exactly in the center.
Centering is everything.
Yep, that sure sounds like real life. If I don’t center myself on Jesus first thing in the morning, my day is not going to go well. I will find myself more critical, impatient, and annoyed. Just this morning I woke late, so jumped out of bed without even a word to Jesus and started my morning routine. At breakfast I snapped at a comment Dad had made, which typically happens less than it used to. Then I remembered, Oh yeah, I never asked for strength and help this morning, I just tried doing things in my own strength, which isn’t much these days.
As I watched that ugly lump of clay spin around on the potter’s wheel, it slowly took shape in the loving, wedging, nestling hands of Charlene. Watching her hover around the lump of clay I could see her joy in her work, her love for the art, and her vision for what was going to appear. Every now and again she would stop and center the lump a little better because it would tend to stray. She said,
Do not let the clay tell you what to do; it will become a very naughty toddler. This pot seems to have an attitude so I’ll have to center it again.
How often do I tell Jesus I don’t really like how my life is shaping up? I sometimes give him some ideas which I think would be much better: If you could just make things easier, less invasive, more predictable, yada yada. Really? I’m trying to tell the genius creator of the universe that I have a better plan? Perhaps I need to work on centering myself so I become more submissive, more obedient, trusting and accepting of what comes my way, knowing that God’s ways are ultimately the best. Giving thanks for the difficult stuff.
The potter is the hero of the story.
She is the one who forms, shapes and creates beauty with a seemingly useless ugly lump of clay. I think we (I know for sure I) want to be the hero and tend to put ourselves in a far too important role at times. But we must keep in mind always that Jesus is the Hero, He is the creator and sustainer of all things. Everything He does is good and will be used someday in His grand story.
I left that day before Charlene fired the pots in the kiln, however, I did learn that it heats up to 1800 degrees, and the pottery is cooked not once but twice. Once after the shaping, another time after the glaze is applied. I believe we as people go through the fire as well, our lives heat up almost beyond bearable, but at just the right time we are taken out and left to cool. How else can we become strong and durable? It certainly doesn’t happen when our life is sweet and cushy as marshmallows.
Making pottery is a process, and I now understand why handmade pottery is expensive. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the work Charlene does and the work, care and patience God has for me. Let Him have His way with you, my dear daughters, and you too will become beautiful in the hands of the Potter.
Love, Mom
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