The Potter's Hand
"The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 'Go down to the shop
where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there.' So
I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he
was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into
a lump of clay and started again." (Jeremiah 18:1-4 NLT) [1]
The Christian author Phillip Keller wrote in one of his books about a time when
he was traveling around the border of China and Pakistan. He was told that this
was the area where the finest Chinese pottery was made. He remembered verses
like the ones above and asked if he could go see some of it being made.
The potter took him to a shed behind the house where he prepared the clay. It
was not merely clay but had grass clippings, etc. mixed in. When the man opened
the door the smell of the rotting material almost knocked Phillip down. The man
went inside, mixed up a lump of clay and then took it inside to his wheel.
He worked with the clay to make a vessel. He noticed a tiny rock in the wall of
the vessel he was forming. He knew the vessel would not hold up with that
foreign matter in it so he took it out. Then he had to mash the clay into a lump
and start again.
When the vessel was formed the man reached back to grab a string behind him
which was hanging on a nail. He dipped this string in water, looped it around
the base of the vessel and cut the vessel away from the rest of the clay.
The potter then placed the vessel on a shelf. There it sat until the potter knew
it was time to put it into the fire. The potter knew how many times it needed to
be fired before it could be of use.
This is a good parable of the Christian life. There is one difference, though.
The master Potter does not barge in and grab a lump of stinky, filthy clay. He
stands at the door and knocks. You must place yourself into the potter's hand.
By Dean W. Masters
dwmasters@earthlink.net Owner
of the Masters List:
http://shaned.net/mailman/listinfo/masterslist_shaned.net
Unaltered article may be forwarded
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[1] Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 1997. Tyndale House: Wheaton, Ill.