Being formed by the hands of the Potter

I’ve always been fascinated with the process of clay being formed on a potter’s wheel. The craft of taking a solid lump of simple, hard clay being formed by skilled hands into a unique, beautiful piece of pottery. The creation of a tall vase, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top to pull together a floral bouquet. Forming a deep bowl with rings circling the bottom to the top to produce texture. I was given a lovely sage green coffee mug, a vine etched in the side from the bottom growing up to the top. It was made by the hands of my dear friend, Sarah.  She built a pottery studio in her detached garage where she escapes into solitude and creativity. Sarah and I became fast friends as physical therapy majors during our freshman year of college.

In our last semester of senior year, we decided to take an art class one night a week. Four credit hours of art was definitely not required for our physical therapy curriculum but we were itching to tap into our creative sides.  She enrolled in a pottery class and I chose jewelry-making.  Every Wednesday night, we would arrive at the art building and sit in adjacent classrooms to learn and practice these new crafts.  During the hands-on practice, we would pop back and forth between the spaces to view each other’s projects.  In that season, we learned the importance of patience, time, and tedious work that was required to take an unformed substance and transform it into a masterpiece.

A unique creation

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; 
We are the clay, and you are our potter; 
We are the work of your hand.  Isaiah 64:8 

In our humanity, most of us find comfort in being able to form our own life. We would prefer the role of the potter over the clay. Acting as the potter means having full control over the process and the final form of the art piece. Taking the form of clay is complete surrender to the hands of another. The potter plays an active role while the clay is passive. Allowing someone else to shape who we are or what we will become takes trust.

God, in the role of the potter, has a vision for what we will be while we are still a lump of clay. He sees the beauty of what can come from clay, the unique expression that can be formed under His trained hands and His watchful eyes. He is the original Creator and has been bringing life to all things since the beginning of time.

Sarah shared with me that the most stable clay has some broken pieces in it that will re-incorporate into the pottery as it is formed. The broken pieces make the clay gritty and give it strength. Without those broken pieces, the clay is too slippery and slides through the fingers. I can’t help but appreciate that God’s original design for us wasn’t brokenness but yet, He is still able to take those pieces and reintegrate them into our lives. The end result is beautiful.

The clay responds to the gentle touch or pressure of the potter’s hands and the movement that he creates with the speed of the wheel. Centering the piece requires pressure from his hands on the top and sides of the clay. If the clay isn’t centered, it will flop over during formation. He determines when clay needs to be added or taken away from the piece. He allows the clay to rest on the wheel and comes back to it later, reshaping and remolding it as he wills. Once a basic cylinder is formed, the gentlest touch starts to alter the vessel into a new form and true beauty begins to emerge. The clay sits on the wheel in complete surrender. It cannot create itself or transform into a different shape.

The tender hands of the Father

As followers of Jesus, we can trust God, the Potter, to form us under His expert hands and His unique vision for us. We surrender to the process of spiritual formation, responding to His gentle touch or even the firm pressure necessary to become a unique display of His masterpiece. We know that we must be centered by the truth of His word over us and increase in strength through His work in us. We won’t be ready to be forged in the kiln, under the heat of pain and suffering unless we have allowed Him to form us.

So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.  Jeremiah18: 3-4   (the message)

Why would the pot turn out badly? Was the clay not responding to the hands of the potter? Were there external forces at work that impacted the clay? Was the wheel spinning too fast or too slow? What other influences could have been happening to cause the pot to suddenly misshapen?

While a pottery artist might become easily flustered by this sudden change, I picture the Father’s response much differently.  I imagine the sadness He experiences to see the very work of His hands not becoming the vision that He had imagined. I picture His tenderness in wrapping both of His hands around the piece of clay once again with grace that says, it’s okay for us to start over.  He doesn’t need to throw out the clay or replace it.  He knows what the clay is supposed to become and commits to the continued formation that is required of it until the masterpiece is finished.

Surrender to transformation

Transformation is a process of surrender.  It’s letting go of our need to be in control and allowing the master Potter to form us by the work of His hands.  He takes our ordinary lives and puts us on display as His very own jars of clay, demonstrating His power at work within us. This process can’t be rushed and the Father isn’t in a hurry. He takes His time with the clay, knowing exactly what it needs under His touch. He restarts the wheel at a slow pace. Moving too fast will cause the clay to lose its stability. He adds water to it, keeping the clay from hardening in His hands. A new creation begins to emerge.

Where do you see yourself in the process? Are you the lump of clay that has recently surrendered to the Potter’s hands, either for the first time or to be reformed? Do you feel hardened and long for life-giving water to soften you? Is the Father reincorporating some of the broken pieces back into the beauty of your life? Or are you feeling the pressure on you, trusting that goodness is coming from it?  The Potter is with you in the process.  He adores His daughter and calls you His masterpiece!