When I was in high school, my dad decided he wanted to teach me something new. He was an art teacher. I wasn’t very artistic. I dabbled in writing and poetry from time to time, but really, aside from basketball, I wasn’t great with my hands. He felt that my athleticism and hand-eye coordination might combine for some talent on the potter’s wheel. So one summer, I found myself sitting at this archaic piece of machinery, wondering what on earth I had gotten myself into.
My dad was a great teacher, though he wasn’t mine. I went to a different school, and as his former teenage daughter, I am all but certain he used up every ounce of patience he had, in the classroom. But when in his element, teaching art or coaching basketball, he exuded patience and understanding.
He assured me that I was doing better than most kids do on the wheel their first time. He was very encouraging, but I was a brat. I couldn’t get the doggone clay to do anything I wanted. I felt clumsy and frustrated, lacking the control with which I could so easily weave through defenders while dribbling a ball around my ankles.
I gave up. I was never any good at not being good at stuff. If I didn’t pick up the skill right away, I’d likely never do it again. I never did, and he never again asked.
When I came across this Bible verse, this memory resurfaced, and it made me think.
The Potter’s Hands
What if God gave up? How often do we make His job more difficult? How often do we spin out of control, off track, or in the wrong direction, of our own volition?
The fact is that so many of us exercise our free will daily, even hourly, doing the things we want to do, even when we know, or think that maybe we shouldn’t. We don’t often pause to speak with Him before making decisions.
Just as that clay seemed to want nothing to do with the plans my hands had for it, we often push back and test boundaries.
What if we just let go?
I looked up the definition to potsherd. Potsherds are historic or prehistoric, broken pieces of ceramic material. Additionally, I found that a potsherd is something of archaeological value, with a high resistance to natural destructive processes.
We were created with the utmost care, lovingly shaped and molded in-spite of ourselves, not to be indestructible, but to be constructible.
Alone we are lumps of clay, or possibly broken fragments of what we once were. If we let go, allow Christ to work in us, through us, around us, we can be made beautiful.
You were created with value and strength. Have faith in the Potter’s Hands and let go!
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