The Potter's Hand

The Potter’s Hands

http://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/content.aspx?id=3036

One day the village parson took a different route to work. Nudged by a strange impression, he followed his nose to a different part of town where craftsmen plied their various trades. Arriving at a particular shop, he peered through the window then entered the studio. It was a pottery-making enterprise, and the first thing the parson noticed was the blast of heat that hit him as he walked through the door. It was from the large kiln attached to the external wall of the shop. Workers were carefully arranging clay objects in the oven, firing them, seasoning them for use.

The parson also noticed display shelves on the opposite wall filled with assorted pottery wares for sale. A couple of women were contemplating a set of clay jars. The pastor also noticed clay lamps, bowls, vases, and pots.


His attention, however, was quickly drawn to an old man sitting at the potter’s wheel, spinning it skillfully by foot pedals, and forming a piece of pottery with his experienced fingers. The man was imaginative, and he was making a drinking vessel with strange lines and ridges and indentations. Pausing, the man slowed the wheel and looked at his creation. It was marred and unsatisfactory. Suddenly the potter smashed the clay into a ball, dipped his hand into a water jar, applied a new coat of moisture, and started working again.


The preacher turned and left, exiting into the street and, looking up and down, saw everywhere signs of violence, immorality, filth, poverty, and moral failure. Then this thought came to the Reverend Jeremiah from God himself: “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!” (Jeremiah 18:6). The prophet Jeremiah gained a new perspective on God’s work among His people and a new sense of hope in the Master Potter who can form and re-form our lives.