by Roxanne Smith
Yesterday the sermon was about being a clay pot. Pastor Rossow told us that he had watched some YouTube videos of potters throwing pots. He recommended that we watch them, too, to be reminded how a potter shapes a clay pot. So I watched 5 videos. It was fascinating…truly mesmerizing.
The clay pot is not created by a gentle process. The Potter slaps a lump of clay down on his wheel, and he proceeds to knead it vigorously to squeeze out the air pockets. Only after the air bubbles are gone can the Potter start to shape a clay pot that will survive the firing process.
He starts to add water to the clay and to spin his wheel. He leans over the clay lump as it spins. He carefully applies pressure in the right areas to shape the pot he’s envisioning. The potter uses his own hands and fingers to create.
My impression of the artisans at work is that a potter is incredibly skilled! He or she knows exactly how much pressure to apply at each vertical level of the pot. He has an overall vision in mind from the very beginning. He goes over the walls of the clay form again and again, patiently, deliberately, until they are just right.
The Potter sometimes uses tools to shave clay from the outside of the pot. Or he may use a fork to sculpt a pattern on the surface of the clay as the wheel turns. He or she might add color accents, even before the firing and glazing steps.
In the Bible, God is the Potter and we humans are the clay. God is our Creator; we are His creation. The clay is being shaped for a specific use which the potter has in mind. We aren’t in charge of this process…God is.
The clay is being shaped for a specific use which the potter has in mind.
I don’t like this lack of control very much. I want to choose the kind of pot I’m going to be. It should be a ceramic vase worthy of the Ann Arbor Art Fair. My glaze should be something really special. An eye catcher. A display piece worthy of a noble purpose.
But I’m actually an everyday kind of pot. Pretty ordinary. I’ve even got some fairly major cracks. I’m not the pot I dreamed of being when I was young.
But somehow, watching the potters on Youtube, I was struck by how intentional the potter is with me. How he leans toward me, not away. How he is focused on the process of shaping me, how he is personally involved. It’s actually pretty intimate.
None of us are products of an assembly line; each one of us is personally formed and one of a kind. Unique. Hand-made.
None of us are products of an assembly line; each one of us is personally formed and one of a kind. Unique. Hand-made.
Now I’m going to get brutally honest. In my worst moments, I tend to judge myself. I ask whether or not I am good enough. At my worst I judge myself as being unworthy…especially since I am disabled and can’t further my career. In my community, career and success seem to be so important.
But if I’m just the pot, it’s not up to me to evaluate my worth. That’s the Potter’s job. And He took great care in making me…for His specific purposes. HIS purposes…not just mine.
You and I don’t always like the shape we turn out to be, or the painful process of being sculpted. But when life gets hard and we’re living far from ideal lives, we can remember: we are in good hands. The hands of the Pottter.
