THE POTTER AND THE CLAY

Isaiah 2:2-3 – “ the nations will see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow, you will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem of the hand of your God”

Let our hearts be gladdened by this story. May everything good that we get from it be cherished and treasured in your hearts. Year ago, two grandparents saw a beautiful teapot that they were buying as present to their granddaughter for her birthday. The teapot was flattered to be considered beautiful and began to tell its story to the elderly. “I wasn’t always as beautiful as you think. I was once ugly, soggy and damp clay that an old potter had put on the wheel and work on it which caused so much pain and aches. Spinning and stretching, poking and punching my body I beg him to stop but he didn’t listen and instead did it several times. Not contented with torturing me, he also put me in the furnace to go through unbearable heat. I beg him to stop yet he went on. Then further on he poured some smelly paint and etched designs and put my body again to burn some more. When this is done, he cleaned me up shining brightly and that is when you saw me beautiful as you think. To be beautiful I had to go through difficult and hard processes”.

So what does this story tells us? Could this be likened to our life as Christians where once upon a time was not so beautiful? We have to go through not so easy process to come up to God’s standards. Why does the Lord allow difficult situations beyond our human power to control? In our human weakness we complain and become hard and go against His will. We refuse to bend and resist His will. The teapot and the diamond go through a lot of different processes like to fire to become most valuable and precious. Paddling our way upstream going against the current requires a lot of effort, could be hurting and pushing to hard instead of following His will and going with the flow.’ Let go and let the Lord” take charge for He knows what is best for us. Let us be reminded that it is easier to bend than to break. Contentment requires flexibility. A willingness to bend. The more that we yield the more we become the clay that the potter wants us to be. God our potter can’t transform us when we become rigid and resist his molding ways. In our Christian life, we should be strong to accept his will on us so we can be molded to what He wants us to be for his glory. Though hard, we should be flexible to what life may bring us trusting that God is in control. For when we are flexible we become more resilient to the storms and can bounce right back from frustrations and disappointments. Flexibility makes our heart limber and easier to accept that which is inevitable and God’s will on us.