I have always loved the story of the Potter and the Clay found in Jeremiah. It speaks of Jeremiah going down to the potter’s house and there, hearing the Lord speak to him. He watches as the potter takes the clay and makes it into a vessel that seemed good for Him. Then the Lord says to Jeremiah in verse 6, “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? … Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand.” We are in the hands of the Potter.
Marred in the hands of the Potter
And this is an encouragement and a comfort us all. That we are in the potter’s hand. That’s one reason why I love this story.
Then I recently heard this story again and one part of it stood out to me, more so than before. Specifically from Jeremiah 18:4.
It reads, “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so, the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
The part, that says “the clay was marred in his hands” literally jumped out at me. So, I did a quick word search on “marred”.
By definition, marred means to impair the appearance of: to disfigure. Keep that in mind as I continue.
Now in thinking about the process of using the potter’s wheel, I remember my own experience. Working with clay on a potter’s wheel and how it was actually one of my favorite classes that I took in high school.
What I loved about it, is that you really could not mess it up. No matter how often it seemed that I messed up my pot, I could always add a little water and start all over again.
