The Sunday Sermonette – A Lump of Clay.
In the summer of 1965, I was introduced to the Gulfport Recreational Center, which once stood where the downtown fire station now stands. I took art from Mrs. Effie Gridley and gymnastics from Mrs. Jackie Hinds. I loved painting and enjoyed doing backflips on the trampoline. However, wheel throwing, the art of shaping clay on a potter’s wheel, threw me for a loop. I had neither the patience nor talent for turning twirling lumps of clay into works of art.
Unfortunately, I don’t remember the dear lady who attempted to wheedle her rambunctious thirteen-year-olds into potters, but she had the patience of Job. In the days before air-conditioning, I sat by one of the large windows on many hot Saturday afternoons, a dingy-yellow window shade occasionally flapping against the worn window seal via a warm breeze from the Gulf. Slowly turning the wheel, I twisted the cool, mushy gray clay in my young hands in accordance with the instructor’s instructions.
I carefully kneaded the clay to remove air bubbles and defects to create “dream clay,” said the instructor, from which we could mold all things amazing. She informed us that precisely preparing the raw clay ensured the correct moisture content needed for shaping it and prevented it from cracking or warping when fired. Looking around the room, I saw other young potters whirling away, their dream clay taking the shape of a sleek vase or a low bowl with undulating edges. My dream clay? A blob-ish, formless mess.
I was reminded of my dream clay while reading the Book of Jeremiah not long ago. Father God told the Prophet in those passages to visit the town potter. When Jeremiah arrived, the potter was working hard, turning a new pot on his wheel. He noted that the potter had complete power over the clay. He also observed defects in the clay and how the potter did not allow them to remain. He reshaped the pot, ridding it of its defects. However, the potter could also have viewed those defects as too great an obstacle. At that point, he would have no choice but to smash the clay, start over, and attempt to conform the clay to his purposes.
Similarly, God has the transformative power to reshape the clay of our lives, aligning it with His divine will and plans. He may knead our clay, pressing out its imperfections, or He may choose to start anew. But we should never become passive to His kneading or mindless to His reshaping. When we yield to God’s reshaping, only then will He turn us into valuable vessels, each with a unique purpose and beauty.
In today’s me-me-me world, independence, forcefulness, and rebelliousness toward authority are valued personality traits. But if we are not in a right relationship with God and His Son Jesus, these qualities can quickly be twisted into stubbornness, egotism, and the staunch refusal to listen and change. Left unchecked, these worldly characteristics can become a way of life hostile to both Jesus and Father God.
When Father God created us, he did not intend for us to be marionettes on a string. No, He made us, gave us free will, and then cut the strings. What we do now is our choice. We can become His “dream clay,” letting Him, in His love, mold us into the exquisite vessels He intended. Or we can become “a blob-ish, formless mess,” twirling around and around on the world’s potter’s wheel, only to end up smashed into a thousand pieces for all eternity.
Ponder this and go forth.
