Being Clay in His Hands
If you have watched a vessel take shape on a potter's wheel then perhaps you would share my fascination with this seemingly magical process. As it is pressed, stretched and smoothed, the clay grows as if imbued with its own life, responding instantly to the potter's touch. I tried making a bowl once at a fair and it is not as easy as it looks
The potter and clay metaphor can be found in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, as well as Romans. All of the anecdotes remind us of God's supremacy as our Maker to shape us as He pleases. In Jeremiah 18, The Lord sends Jeremiah to a potter's house to observe clay being worked on a wheel while giving a message to the prophet. If we can pause for a moment also to observe for ourselves what a potter does with clay, there could be some insights.
I did a little research on pottery and learned that when clay is found, it can almost never be used just as it is. Before it can be shaped, it needs to be prepared into a malleable state. The clay is only ready to be worked when a rolled strip of the clay can be coiled around a finger and uncoiled again without cracking. As part of the preparation process, the clay needs to be laid bare and exposed under the sun. It needs to be dried out, broken and pressed through a sieve to clean out impurities. Then, it is mixed into a paste with water and processing additives and any remaining lumps are felt out by hand, squeezed and broken. Then the clay needs to be passed through an even finer sieve after which it is left to dry into a semi-solid paste. But it's not over yet. The clay then needs to be "wedged" which is a process of repeatedly pounding and cutting the clay with a wire until no air pockets remain to puff the clay. Finally the clay is kept constantly moist by keeping it under a cloth with an end soaked in water. It is then left to season for at least two months to further improve its readiness.. If you can imagine yourself as clay, you would see a long and painful process.
When we, the clay, come into God's hands we certainly won't be left as we are. God won't be satisfied until He can have us wrapped around His finger! When we come to Him, our sins are laid bare to His light, we are broken and sanctified through His sieve of grace and mercy. We are mixed with His water of eternal life and our additives are our spiritual gifts. Still, He extends His hands to probe us, squeeze us and break our remaining lumps of sin, stubbornness, wrong thinking or whatever it is we need to yield. And then we are sieved even more and further refined. He lets us dry a little sometimes in ministry and in our walks, to reduce us perhaps, and then He comes again to pound us and cut us so that the puffy airs of pride and self-righteousness can be removed. But we can keep moist, tender if you will, through a continued soaking in His Spirit and we are seasoned through time as our growth continues. The process develops us into a character pleasing to Him, one that He can shape and use.
When the clay is finally placed on the wheel, it needs to be first centred - made true - so that it doesn't wobble. It is stretched up and pressed down again a few times on the wheel before commitment to shaping commences. And as the wheel spins, it imparts a centrifugal force that gives an almost living responsiveness to the clay which takes expression from the potter's hands. Malleable clay responds to the slightest touch of the master and clay must be shaped by pressure. Sometimes, if the clay has remaining lumps in it, it will become marred on the wheel. However, under an expert potter's hands, the cause of the marring can be corrected and the vessel can be reshaped into something still pleasing to the potter.
I'll leave it to you to meditate on the balance of that allegory. As you imagine being clay on the wheel, I am sure God will speak to you
From raw clay out of a pit, to clay that is workable and being shaped, I think there are reflections of our Christian walks. Throughout our walks, all of the time whatever the pain and challenges, we are in His hands and His care never leaves us. We are being prepared and shaped into something pleasing. With love for Him, we can submit to this and trust Him no matter how much things may hurt because we know it is His hands working us, squeezing us and refining us.
Even when our lives seem to be going round and round, we can still be at rest and find peace because it is His foot that is on the pedal controlling the spinning wheel. We are just on The Potter's wheel and we are in The Potter's hands.
All the time, we are being shaped to fulfil our destiny in His plan for us and we are ALL growing from glory to glory... (2 Corinthians 3:18). Don't worry, don't be "lumpy", just submit - it is all going to work out fine
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Author: doulos
Location: Malaysia
Gender: Male
Age: 39
Blog Entries: 36 (archive)
Blog Comments: 273
i am a regular christian with a passion for the ministry of healing and deliverance. i believe that we are not only called to make disciples but to also heal the sick and cast out demons in the name of jesus. i constantly witness and experience the power of god...
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i'm a born again christian who was broken and came back to god with a contrite heart. i was saved by grace. he wiped away my tears, gave me a new heart and filled me with his spirit. while serving him in lay ministry, i was healed of insomnia, migraine...
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