The use of clay to produce pottery is one of the oldest crafts of humankind. Shards of ancient pottery have been found on nearly every continent. The Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, has displayed a large intact pot that is three thousand years old, and others have been found that are even older. I own a cherished pottery lidded dish that is perfect for stacking pancakes. Pottery is a symbol of civilization itself.

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2Corinthians 4:6-7)

God had sent Jeremiah to the house of a potter to receive a message from Him, a message that has reverberated for thousands of years: “Can I not do with you as this potter does?. . . Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand. (Jeremiah 18:6) Jeremiah watched as the potter began work on a pot; then, when the project was imperfect in his hands, the potter “formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”( Jeremiah 18:4)

God’s capacity to shape and reshape us into perfection, His will to create and recreate us, is shone in the potter. That He would persevere in our lives to bring us to His perfection is a mystery, and a lifeline of hope for every soul.

The reshaping takes place in the common places and times of our lives, in the kitchen, in the car, in the school room, the back yard, in our closets, our work places and our relationships, in our churches, and in our play. It’s the message of salvation itself, the cry of David, when he had sinned: “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God!” (Psalm 51:10)

The potter’s work was the visible, tangible picture of God’s invisible supernatural work in our lives. When St. Paul wrote that we are “jars of clay” he was remembering God’s message to Jeremiah at the potter’s house. The “Treasure” is the light of God that lives in His people, the people who are the clay that is molded in God’s hands to receive His Holy Spirit. We are the clay; He is the potter. It is a joyful way of remembering our God, of receiving His work in and on our lives, and in rejoicing in the beauty of pottery.

Love in Him,

Prue