Today is our halfway mark in our 40 day journey to Easter. I'm glad you're here.
Day 20
Have you ever watched children play with playdough? (Or maybe you've played with it yourself?) It's amazing to see how creative they are, and what amazing shapes and creatures they can design and produce.
And then, when playtime's over, they smoosh it all up and squash it into a container, to put away safely until next playtime.
Let's read today's Bible passage with this image in mind. We're reading Jeremiah 18: 1 - 6 ...
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house; there I will reveal My words to you.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel. 4 But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.
5 The word of the Lord came to me: 6 “House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel.
In today's Bible reading, God has an object lesson in mind for Jeremiah. He send the prophet to the local potter’s house, to observe how the potter actually performs his work. While he's there, the Lord speaks to Jeremiah, asking: “Can I not do with you as this potter?”
In this passage of Scripture, God is asserting both His unquestionable authority and His absolute ability to form and shape individuals, kingdoms and nations as He pleases, to serve His own purpose.
This forming and shaping can feel painful and uncomfortable - potters actually call this process "pinching the clay"! You may go through times where it feels like the Father's hands are squeezing you too tight, or like He's tearing larger pieces off of you than you can bear.
It's uncomfortable (to say the least!) when the Lord shows you parts of your life, or parts of your heart, that are ugly, misshapen, or unuseful, and then He sets about refining and reshaping you.
But this sometimes painful refining of our hearts and minds is actually a sign of the Father's love and mercy towards us. When He saves us He doesn’t just lay us aside, leaving us as we are in that moment. Instead, He starts right away working on us to make us better for His use and glory.
"God is the Potter and we are the clay. Sometimes He has to break our worldly vessels and make us over again, but in the hands of God, our undeveloped raw lives are redeemed. In the hands of God, we are reshaped into useful vessels" (Dharius Daniels).
Pottery is clay that has been fired to form a hard, solid object. If we don't allow Him to refine and correct our lives, or we allow bitterness and unforgiveness to turn our hearts to stone, then we become like pottery - fixed in form and function.
However, the greatest quality of clay is that it is yielding, soft, malleable. In the same way, if we allow our hearts and our characters to remain pliable, then all of our flaws, our rough and our crooked edges, can be
remoulded by the Potter. In His grace, He even reworks our mistakes into new opportunities for success.
Photo credit: www.thepotterywheel.com