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Clay is not just dirt – clay can be shaped – you too?

"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"
(Jeremiah 18,6)

For most people, a piece of clay is just dirt. However if we observe a potter or take part in a clay modelling course ourselves, we quickly change our opinion. In the hands of potter, clay is more than just dirt.

One day God sent Jeremiah to a potter, in order to make something clear. Jeremiah watched on as the potter took a piece of clay, laid it on a wheel and span it into motion. The potter’s hands carefully shaped a jar. Jeremiah could hardly believe that something so beautiful and useful could be made from a lump of mud. However the jar suddenly broke in the hands of the potter. Jeremiah was now interested to find out what the potter would do. Maybe he would get annoyed and throw the clay away, but the potter did not get annoyed – only sad. He took the unfortunate jar and pushed it together into a lump once again. He laid it into the wheel once again, turned the wheel again and started to form the clay into shape with his fingers. Would it be successful this time? The potter patiently produced a new jar. He observed the result. Yes, now it had turned out, like he imagined it the first time. He was satisfied.

Jeremiah was also happy to see the successful piece. He heard the voice of God, which pulled him out of his adoration. Jeremiah! Can I not treat you like the potter treats this piece of clay? "See how the clay is in the hands of the potter? You are also in my hands." However clay does not have a will, it is a dead material and must allow itself to be shaped into whichever shape the master desires.

With us humans, it is not the same. God does not want to give up working on us. Even if the "jar" is not quite how it should be – the master wants to reform us anew.

Do you want that? Have you already given up and think: It’s no use anyway?

God does not think like that. If you cannot face yourself in the mirror anymore, allow yourself to be “laid out on the potter’s wheel” again. Give yourself to the master’s hand. He will manage something new which will please you and him.

Franz-Josef Eiteneier

With the kind permission of the Advent-Verlag publishers www.advent -verlag.de
Translated from German into English by Youthwork-Practice.