“In the Potter’s Hand” By Beth DeCristofaro
Then the word of the LORD came to me: Can I
not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed,
like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
(Jeremiah 18:5-6)
Thus it will be at the end of the age. The
angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them
into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. (Matthew
13:49-50)
Piety
O God, divine Potter, shape me on your wheel
that I know you always on earth, in your church and in others. Fill me with the joy of Jesus Christ and the
fire of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Study
From Jerimiah and the beautiful hymns about
the potter’s wheel “you are the potter; I am the clay…” I imagine someone
hunched overworking, working the wheel.
It spins while hands hold, pinch, push, smooth, reworking what is
needed. Water is splashed, softening the
material. Sitting at the wheel has been
described as Zenlike. However, Jesus’
parables and his many discourses tell us this is not a necessarily gentle and
benign process. Clay slicers might
remove a top-heavy slab, and a fettling knife carves a swirling pattern and
scrapers smooth and trim. In expert,
patient hands a beautiful pot comes into view. Or the potter discards the
effort.
In life, however, the perfect vessel of a
life is rarely fashioned. Whether by bad
choices or the vagaries of the human condition, we spin upward from a lump
without precision. We develop bumps and
imperfect edges in ourselves and in our relationships. We blow out the side of a beautiful curved
surface by straying from a path of faith.
We try too hard and our icons form brittle spots incapable of holding
together. We struggle for human standards
of beauty which are irrelevant to God and unbalance the design. The wonder of
all of this is the patience of the Potter whose merciful hands continue to
guide, pull, push and level us. Jesus
uses what is old and what is new – all parts and moments of our life
contributing – to form us into the vessel he will bring to God our Creator
through his own broken, risen self.
He tells us that at the “end of the age” a
reckoning will come not to scare us with judgment but to enlighten us as to the
choices we are invited to make. We can
be sheep or goat, we can be good fish or rotten fish, we can be wheat or
weed. We cannot be a disciple, we cannot
become a vessel of beauty in God’s eyes, without Him.
Action
Am I struggling against the work of the
Potter or do I consent to suffering and humility? Do I accept being shaped so that the work of
the Potter will be seen by others to the glory of God? Take some time to thank God for making me as
beautiful as God sees me – even more beautiful than daughter’s gifts of clay to
their mom.
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