Clay speaks

Meditation on the Potter's hands by Pastor David McFarland

• It is very quiet in the pottery. Sometimes I hear clearly the voice of the Potter but at times like this there are long silences. Nobody is here but the Potter and me. I am a handful of clay. Just a handful of sticky clay but I am in the Potter's hand. With great mercy and love He has lifted me from a mass of sinful humanity. I am chosen by the Potter, not because there is any good in me, but because He is making me a vessel for His glory. John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…
• I am spinning around on the Potter's wheel. At first it was a slow spin. I was aware of the changes He was making in me. I was turned from being an shapeless lump into something perfectly formed. If He had not kept me in the centre of His will, I might have flown off at a tangent and made a mess of everything.
• I am now spinning faster than before. It seems impossible that I can survive this but He tells me I am safe forever and I feel the assurance of His hands around me.
• Now I am being squeezed. I am being forced into a shape I did not expect. Sometimes the pressure is gentle and sometimes it is really firm. I fear this is too much. He tells me He knows how much I can take. The Potter knows what He is making of me. The more I am stretched apart, the more I can be filled to bear blessing to others.
• At some points the spinning stops and the pressure eases. It is then I feel the pain as he picks out the imperfections that have contaminated me. He deals with the grit of my lack of faith; He removes the little pebbles of pride.
• I am spinning again and now my shape begins to change. As I grow, I begin to narrow. I have seen other pots in the pottery and have envied being like them. I find this all too difficult to understand. Why can't I be elegant? Why can't I be given less to carry? He speaks. "All of these are fashioned by Me. I have a purpose for each one. But I have stretched you and shaped you to carry much and to pour out to others. Others will depend on you to give them what I am sending and together you will all glorify Me. But I am not finished with you yet.."

  Isaiah 45:9. "Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' NIV Isaiah 64:8. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. NIV