Bundoran Community Church

On the Potters Wheel

You stoop your head to enter a Potter’s stone shed, set in a remote barren landscape on the Wild Atlantic Way.  Next, let’s imagine you are a lump of clay, dust from dust, perhaps scraped carefully from some nearby riverbed.  ‘Aaaahhh’, you breathe a sigh of relief as you relax in the Potter’s warm waiting room, hoping to be left alone to vegetate.

Abruptly, your rest is disturbed as the Potter carries and places you on the clean Potter’s wheel.  ‘Whoooaaa’ you screech, as if clay could speak, the wheel spins around and around.  Dizzy and totally disorientated you catch a blury glimpse of yourself in the mirror, once every oscillation.  Faster and faster you go.  Wondering if this is necessary!  Then two big burley hands surround you.  A feeling of safety overwhelms you until the hands begin to squeeze with gentle pressure.

I’m sure these things and more were in the prophets mind when he stated ‘You, LORD, are our Father.  We’re the clay and you are our Potter; we are all the work of your hand.’ Isaiah 64:8.

You notice yourself getting taller, then wider as the craftsman’s hands carefully shape and mould you.  At times you let out an ‘ouch!’ as significant pressure is applied by the Potter, as if to remind you that he is the boss.  You wonder what you are becoming!  Perhaps you rebelliously protest ‘I don’t want to be a teapot, I want to be a mug!’  Then it dawns how outrageous it is for the clay to question the potter!  How absurd for us to think we shape or control our own destiny!  Yet the Potter quietly carries on...

 You try to resist, arms folded to a rigid position, to discourage the Potter.  Yet too much resistance can cause the clay to dry out, becoming brittle and useless.  Another prophet called Jeremiah was brought inside a Potter’s shed to observe, he implied that clay can’t change itself, its only clay.  Jeremiah then grabs people’s attention by deliberately shattering a piece of pottery, to illustrate God’s judgement on those who refuse to their Maker.  In God’s great mercy many years later, God become man in the person of Jesus Christ, who took on our clay flesh, he was shattered on the cross outside the city gate, he laid down his life, so God could begin again with us.  We are called to submit to God as the Potter, only when we place ourselves at his disposal will the highly skilled One remake, reshape and repurpose our souls.  

The Potter is patient, as he relentlessly pursues the clay’s ultimate good.  As clay we may throw a few wobblies during the process, but the Potter reforms and remakes us into useful and beautiful vessels.  Occasional blips of moral failure, wilful sin and disappointments cause worry that the Potter will discard us, but the Potter remains unphased, his grace keeps faith with the processes of change.

 From the wheel it can be hard to visualise what the Potter is making but slowly the blemishes are ironed out and snags removed.  You find yourself on the countertop – waiting.  Times of seemingly nothing taking place frustrate us.  Yet the Potter explains that the waiting is for drying naturally – this process can’t be rushed.  Then the temperature rises as you are placed with many other pots into the Kiln.  ‘Ooooh, ahhhh’, at just the right heat the clay is chemically changed into hardened ceramic.  Painful times arise in our lives of intense testing or temptation, God’s purpose is to purge evil and to fortify lasting change of our character. 

 What you have read above are anecdotes from a suspicious unruly clay type; how different it might read if the clay trusted our good God, who has proven his love for us.  How different this story might go if you and I co-operate in the process of spiritual transformation by God the Master Potter.  We are being called to surrender to the Sovereign Soul Shaper who makes us for his purpose!  The Apostle Paul gives a remarkable vision for our clay earthen pots declaring that our jars of clay are designed by God to hold the treasure and light of God’s presence.  Weak vessels remade and repurposed to display the glory of God!  What a vision, what a purpose, what a life changer – perhaps there is comfort in accepting our place as clay on the Potter’s wheel.  Will we surrender to the professional hands of the Great Divine Potter today and experience a complete makeover!