The Potter and the Clay

 A couple weeks ago the girls and I tried our hand at making some pottery. A friend had given us some clay that she had leftover after doing it with some of the kids at our homeschool co-op. We really like pottery around here (especially lovely usable stuff - I love my pottery serving bowls) and so we thought it would be fun to try make some ourselves. Mara called a ceramic place in town to see if they would be able to put it in their kiln and they said they could so we went to work.

 I had a lot of fun working on a couple of bowls. One of them (the one above) got cracks in it as it dried so I was able to soak it in some water and get it back to clay again and so hopefully soon I'll find some time to try again. The process is challenging but it is really rather fun to gently mold and shape it with your hands.

 Mara very carefully worked on hers - squishing it every so often and starting over. She has such a careful, slow and calm personality which sometimes I find amusing to watch as it is in many ways different then mine.

 It is starting to take shape (though this shape didn't stay - it ended up being formed in a different way).

Megan was meanwhile patting away at her clay and trying different ways to to get it in the shape she wanted it. She added plenty of water too which caused her area to be a bit messier. Megan is in some ways Mara's opposite. She wanted to make it quickly and when it didn't work out the way she wanted the tears began to fall. She is probably the most dramatic of my children. 

   She did finally get something made that she was fairly happy with but not without quite a few tears and much encouragement from me. I think sometimes it is hard being the youngest as you compare what you are doing with what the others (who are older) around you are doing and you don't feel that it compares very well.

  What was kind of cool about the pottery making (I thought anyway) was that the next day I read in Jeremiah chapter 18 about the potter for my morning devotions. I love to be able to really picture and understand what they are talking about. I could understand much better God's desire to take Israel (His "pot") and squish it up and turn it into something different. They had rebelled and turned their backs on Him and I totally understand what He was saying. When clay doesn't co-operate, as Megan can attest, it doesn't make you very happy.

  I found some other verses too, that talk about pottery and I thought it would be fun to share them with you:

  "But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand." Is. 64:8

Do we let God mold us and make us into something really special and usable or do we resist His work on us and instead insist on being a cracked bowl that is basically useless?

"Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker- and earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth!

Will the clay say to the potter, "What are you doing?" Is. 45:9

Let's be mold-able in God's hands so that He can make us into the best things possible!