Jeremiah 18:3-4> "So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."
The Lord
had told Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house and He would give him a message.
So Jeremiah went. He saw the potter working at the wheel. The pot he was
shaping was marred. The potter could have thrown the piece away. He could have
even set it aside. But he didn’t. There was potential. It wasn’t just a clump
of clay to him. He could see a pot. A beautiful pot. So he shaped it as he saw
fit.
I needed
to understand what happens to clay as it is being shaped. So I began to look on
the internet for clues. I learned that clay is refined dirt. That makes perfect
sense! After all, God did make man from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7).
No wonder working with it is messy!
To make
clay that is useable you have to have the right mixture of dirt and water. If
you add too much water the clay won’t harden. It will be too weak to shape into
anything. If it’s too dry it will crumble and break apart and be just as
unusable. It’s important to have the right combination of dirt and water in
order to make something with it. That is true even in God molding us. He did
not create us to be too weak to be shaped into anything; nor did He create us
to crumble and break apart. He knows the right mixture needed to make us into
something beautiful.
Once you
get the mixture right the clay has to be kneaded to mix them together. What
does that mean? To be kneaded? Webster’s 2003 New World Dictionary defines
‘knead’ as: “to work into a pliable mass by folding, pressing and squeezing”.
I don't know about you but I have most definitely felt folded, pressed, and above all, squeezed!!
Why is
this process of kneading so important? So that all the air pockets can be removed. If you
don’t remove all the air pockets from the clay the piece will explode when it
is being fired in the furnace or oven to dry the clay. The same goes for us. I
have proved that over and over. There have been air pockets in me; empty spaces unfilled.
When things heated up I simply exploded!
Another
reason for the kneading process is to get rid of impurities, of junk. If any is left in
the clay it will create imperfections and cause the clay to weaken and fall
apart when it is being thrown on the wheel. This is something the potter can
feel in the clay as he works it with his hands. Doesn’t that also describe our
Potter? Not only does He see our imperfections He feels them, too! He wants to get
rid of all the impurities, the junk in us. He doesn’t want us to weaken and fall apart.
Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has a plan for us. He wants to prosper us and
not harm us. He wants to give us hope and a future. To do that He has to knead
us in order to get rid of “self”. He can’t get rid of the air pockets and impurities
as long as “self” is in the way.
During
the kneading process the potter handles the clay kind of rough in order to work
out the impurities, the junk. At first the clay itself doesn’t respond to the kneading.
The more the potter kneads it the more pliable it becomes. Isn’t that so true
of us as well? There have been times that I have felt as if God was kind of
rough with me. As if He had turned against me. The whole time He was simply
working out the impurities, the junk in me. Even if it meant separating me from
others, to the point of feeling all alone. I was so full of junk that the
Potter could not use me. There was a lot of kneading that had to be done, no
matter how painful it was going to feel. You see, He saw something in that lump of
unmolded clay, in me. Something that could be beautiful when finished. I had to
be willing. Even if it meant it was going to hurt. It is the Potter who does
the molding and shaping of the clay, of us. He knows what He wants the finished
product to be and what He wants it to look like. He will keep kneading until
the clay, until we, are useable. Not 50% useable, not even 98% useable. The clay has to be
100% useable!! Otherwise it will not hold up in the fire. The Potter wants to make something beautiful with us. He knows what the outcome can be. We have to be 100% willing to be molded and shaped His way. No matter how painful it may become.
That is
what God was doing with me. He was kneading me. I was marred. The only way I could be shaped into
something with potential, was to be in the Potter’s hands. He didn’t start
over, He simply went to work on what He’d already begun. He wasn’t finished. I
was like a cracked pot. Not by His doings, but by my own. God was shaping me
the way He had wanted. But I fought against Him and bent in my own direction.
The loving God that He is, had allowed me to make that choice. Do you see what
happens when we go in our own direction? We lose the shape that He had planned
for us. He wants to make us into something beautiful. We can’t even begin to
imagine just what that something beautiful is.
As for me, I saw
brokenness. God saw potential. I felt empty. God wanted to fill me. So He went
to work on this piece of clay. I finally chose to surrender...
Have you?
In awe of Him,
~Vonda
**Heavenly Father, we thank You Lord for Your love. We thank You Lord for not giving up on us. For never throwing us away. Thank You Lord for the potential that only You can see. Father continue to mold and shape us into the pottery that You are designing us to be. When the kneading process feels painful help us to see that it is for our good. Total surrender is what is needed. It is in Your Holy Name that we pray, Amen.
