Sunday Devotions - "What Kind of Clay Are You?"

For today's devotional post I'm stealing a bit from my pastor's sermon last week. On a side note, every Sunday when it's time to get up and shake hands, Pastor O says, "Let's shake a hand and ask how's your mama?"  

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD. "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message."  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.  Then the word of the LORD came to me:  "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.  Jerimiah 18: 1-6

I've worked on a potters wheel, though it has been years ago, and it is not an easy technique to learn. It takes lots of practice, and lots of mistakes, before you get the hang of throwing a pot on the wheel. There are also a few nuances that you have to learn about clay itself and what makes clay receptive to molding and what clay needs to be worked before it can be used to create something beautiful. 

If clay isn't worked properly, small air bubbles can get hidden within the walls of a pot. It may look fine from the outside but once the pot is fired the intense heat will cause the air to expand and the pot will explode. Air bubbles are like our sin we hide. We may look like we live the perfect life on the outside but once "heat is applied" our sins can no longer be hidden.

Another type of clay that isn't suitable to work with is clay that is just a bit on the dry side. This type of clay can still be molded but it is difficult to do so and still have a quality pot at the end. The potter has to "fight" this clay to mold it into a finished pot. How many of us "fight" God's purpose for us? He is the Potter and it is He who decides what form we should be taking.

If clay is left to dry out completely it can't be worked with at all. The only way to save this clay is to smash it and grind it into powder, then water is added to make a moist workable clay. Start completey over. Bone dry clay is like people who have to hit rock bottom in their lives before they turn to Christ for salvation. Only the Potter can make something beautiful out of something that first had to be destroyed.

What kind of Clay are you?

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? Romans 9:21

Dear God, Thank You for molding us into the vessel we need to be, for Your purposes. Amen.