This past weekend, our Spanish tutor invited us out to his town to take a look around. He is from the town of Quetzaltepeque, which is named after a volcano. It is a little town, but very beautiful. The town offers not only beautiful scenery, but talented artisans as well. We visited a view of their shops and got to see them at work on their craft.
The place that struck me the most was the little shack where jars are made. These are used for cooking beans, rice, or for decorative purposes. Clay is mixed with water, kneaded, and then thrown on a potter’s wheel until something beautiful results.
There was one man in particular that we watched for quite awhile. He has been a potter for seventy years. He began learning the craft when he was a young child. He was incredibly skilled…even talking and laughing with us while still molding the clay into the shape he wanted it to be.
While we watched him, Isaiah 64:8 came into my thoughts. This verse says:
And yet, O Lord, you are our Father.
We are the clay, and you are the potter.
We are all formed by your hand.
The book of Isaiah is one of my favorites in all of Scripture because I love the way Isaiah writes…like a poet. I imagine that one day he was walking in the streets and saw a man at work not very unlike the one that I watched. He may have watched the man carefully and skillfully take a piece of mud and mold it, form it, and shape it into the work that he wanted it to be.
And isn’t it the same way with God? He is molding us, making us, and shaping us each and everyday. He forms us in His image using the circumstances, joys, and pains of our life to make us into the work that He wants us to be. On our own, we are just mud. But in his hands we can become something useful, and something beautiful.
We can be molded into something that we never could have imagined, but was in the Potter’s mind all along.
And just for fun…my dear, adventurous husband decided he wanted to try his hand at throwing pots…
Let’s just say, it’s harder than it looks.
Great analogy, Danielle! Just as the Potter so perfectly shapes us into the vessel He wants us to become, when we get our hands into it, as Jon found out, somehow it doesn’t quite measure up to the beautiful vessel God has planned! Thanks for reminding me that we are in His hands and He does know what He is doing!
Slimy!!