the POTTER and the clay

I took ceramics for two years in high school. Got all the way to Advanced Ceramics (ooohh~), but my teacher got angry at me because all I ever made were pots. Pots, pots, pots. The same size, the same cylinder shape, the same style. Haha I never moved on from that, but hey, I was damn good at makin' those pots.

When you're on that wheel (the spinning thingy where you make pots), it's important to keep the clay wet. When the clay gets dry, it becomes hard--and it's extremely difficult to mold. It doesn't make the shape you want it to make. Sometimes it takes a prolonged period of soaking to get the clay moist again if it's been out there too long. And in some cases, the clay is so hard and brittle that you just have to start over with a new piece of clay.

God is the Potter. I am the clay. When I'm soaked in the Living Water, I easily surrender to God's will for me. God can use me so effortlesslly and I'm joyfully willing to do anything for Christ. But oftentimes my heart becomes dry and hard. The Bible is like water, and the more I immerse myself in it, the softer my heart gets. Yet right now I feel like my heart of clay is so hard. It's dry. It's brittle. So change my heart oh God, make it ever true. Change my heart oh God, may I be like You. You are the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.

This is my prayer. But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. [Isaiah 64:8] Soften my heart Lord. Saturate it with the Word. Fill me up with the Holy Spirit. Or heck, even throw out my heart of stone and give me a new heart.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. [Jeremiah 18:1-6]