Benjamin, my son, was introduced to pottery during his high school art classes. Pieces of pottery in all shapes, colors, and sizes now adorn many of my shelves. Ben continues to enjoy learning the technique of shaping pottery and the art of crafting clay to become a thing of beauty.

The basic idea of pottery is to shape a piece of clay into an object and then fire it in a kiln to harden it for use. Forming a piece of pottery properly involves choosing shaping techniques such as wheel throwing, slip casting or hand building. Hand building involves techniques using rolling, coiling, and pinching. Another technique called wedging involves pressing down on the lump of clay while moving it upward and forward in a circular motion. Once the clay is formed into the piece of pottery, it is fired in a kiln at an extremely high temperature.

Often in scripture, we are likened to a piece of clay that God, the Potter, is molding and shaping.

“Yet Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; we all are the work of Your hands.” (Isaiah 64:8)

Don’t you love that phrase – “We all are the work of Your hands”? God has created each one of us with the perfect design in mind and with His own hands He is shaping us to a thing of beauty to complete a task only we were designed to do.

Remember some of the descriptive words of how the clay is shaped? Rolling, coiling, pinching, pressing down…those do not sound completely pleasant, do they? And we are likened to clay. Sometimes the molding and shaping God needs to do hurts. Sometimes the process is difficult, it takes us into the fire. But the entire process is so necessary to create each of us into that beautiful vessel God meant for us to be.

God sent Jeremiah, the prophet, to observe a potter working at his wheel. As the potter worked, the jar became flawed, so he reshaped it into something else, something more beautiful or useful than it had been. This is where God likened Himself to the Potter and Israel to the clay.

“The word of the Lord came to me (Jeremiah): “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. At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it. At another time I announce that I will build and plant a nation or a kingdom.” (Jeremiah 18:1-9)

Just as the potter pictured in his mind the object he intended to create, God had in mind how He needed to shape Israel at various times to fulfill what He needed them to do. Sometimes He needed to uproot them, tear them down and destroy them. Other times He built and planted them.

He does the same with each of us. Sometimes we go through times of discipline due to sin; sometimes we endure sickness, hardship, and loss; sometimes life takes us through unfair or impossible situations. Other times we experience joy, abundance, and growth. God uses all of these things to mold and shape us into what He needs us to be to fulfill His purpose.

Rolling, pinching, pressing down…have you experienced the hurt and pain that comes with shaping? God uses the joys of our lives as well as the sorrows to form us into the beautiful vessel He designed us to be from the very beginning.

Do you trust His design? He is the Potter, and we are just the clay.

Trust His work is preparing you to do the greatest work you can do for Him.

In His Love,

Susan