"Yet Lord, You are our father;
we are the clay, and You are our potter;
we all are the work of Your hands."
-Isaiah 64:8
Recently,
I was dropped from all my classes due to not paying for them.
It has it's benefits but also, it's downfalls.
I loved the classes I was enrolled in.
Especially my ceramics class.
I love art,
I love having an idea and creating it.
I tried drawing, I was decent, but it wasn't something I could keep up with, and I hated everything I drew
I tried painting, I was decent, but just like drawing, it wasn't something I could keep up with, and I hated everything I painted.
Now, I'm trying ceramics, it's something that I can confidently say, I'm good at.
Something I realize about myself, I work well with my hands. I can create something when I'm physically putting something together and make it look exactly how I imagined it. I like to think it's a trait I get from my Daddy. I mean, look at you and I, He created us, and it was GOOD.
Today has been one of those days.
Actually,
It's been one of those months.
And the best way for me to clear my mind is art. So, I went to TJC today to finish a project we've been working on for the last 3 weeks. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to art, so it's taking me longer to finish things.
Thankfully, my teacher encourages us to come in on our spare time and work.
I took advantage of that today (even though i'm no longer enrolled in the class) and was up there for a good few hours just forming a coil clay pot exactly how I imagined it in my mind to look.
As I'm coiling, slip&scoring and blending, I can't help but say in my mind 'this is good'
As I took a minute to sit back and just look at my soon to be master piece, I had in hand a piece of clay that I was forming from a blob of nothing, to a heart, to a small bowl, to a square, then a cube. It was so malleable.
I began staring at my pot again and thought, this is it, this was what God meant when He looked at man and said "This is very good." He looked at all that He has done, it was His best work.
Centeries ago, I imagine God, Jesus, and the Spirit doing some sweet dance around eachother, giving eachother love. Then, one fine day, God, Jesus, and the Spirit were just chillin and having a conversation and I bet it was God that was all like "let's create something beautiful, something in our likeness, something that would Glorify US! That We will LOVE and that will LOVE Us back!" And Jesus and the Spirit was all like "YEAH!"
Then they created the earth, water, plants, sky etc. and they thought it was good! But there was something missing…
so then they created man.
out of dirt.
and breathed life into him.
and then They all sighed some sort of a beautiful sigh and said together "this is very good."
This is the AV version (andies' version.) … don't share this version in a bible study or something… it's sorta off… a little…
anyways,
dirt is another word for clay.
He molded us from clay.
Intending for us to be exactly like Him.
Then the fall happened.
And we all know that story.
We're now sinners.
People had to sacrifice animals in temples to be clean again.
Then, 2000+ years ago…
Jesus came, and became the ulitmate sacrifice…
and we became free from sin and overcame darkness. We didn't have to make sacrifices in temples anymore,
redemption is given freely because of The Blood, the veil was torn. A personal relationship was possible again.
He now walks with us in our darkest times, in our most joyful times.
We now have His Spirit residing inside us!
And can move mountians with Him.
Because of Jesus, we have the capability to be molded into His likeness again.
This was my thought process as I was playing with now dried out clay.
The 3 weeks i've been in that class, I learned that after you handle the clay for a while, it begins to dry out and in order for the clay to be malleable again you need to spray it with some water for it to be usable again.
Sometimes in our spiritual walk,
we have a dry season or if you're like me… 10+ dry seasons.
We feel lonely,
like our prayers are going void,
we begin to think it'd be easier to just walk away because we don't feel we're being used or even usable because of our sinful nature.
"why would a Holy, Gracious, All-powerful, God want to use a sinful man/woman like me? I don't have anything to give." (you're right, you don't. I don't. We have nothing to offer. But thankfully our God is a God of Grace, not works.)
Anyways,
just like clay,
we need water too
But, we don't need just any water, we need the Living Water.
"A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
'Give me a drink,' Jesus said to her, for His disciples had gone into town to buy food.
'How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a samaritan woman?' she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, 'give me a drink,' you would ask Him, and He would give you living water."
"sir," said the woman, "you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this 'living water'? You aren't greater than our father Jacob are You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock."
Jesus said, 'Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again, But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again- ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life."
-John 4:7-13
We then drink from this living water and become humbled by how He uses us in our weakness.
We become like Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet as He speaks, absorbing His words(Luke10:38-41), as He tells us who we are, then begins to pour more of Him into us.
And just like that we are malleable again.
Just like clay is.
He is our Potter,
and we are the clay, every day being molded into something of His likeness.
