Isaiah 64:8 (NLT)
And yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.
A few years ago, my dad and I embarked on a father-son road trip to the Ozark Mountains. Before seeking seclusion, we took a detour to the Passion Play. For those of you not familiar with the place, its an outdoor theater drama based on Jesus' ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. Prior to the actual play, there were several side attractions to entertain and enlighten. One of those was a man who imitated Jesus, teaching a lesson as he shaped a lump of clay on an old spinning wheel. As he molded the mud into a cup, he shared the Scripture above. He went on to detail the process of creating something beautiful out of a chaotic mess. How you have to dig your thumbs into the knots until they smooth out. How if unsupported by a gentle hand, the piece being fashioned will flop over and fall off the wheel. How you must place the finished product through the fire to strengthen its structure. How you can take broken pottery and make it new again.
These gripping images have shaped my understanding of brokenness and restoration. We, along with those around us, are all beautiful pieces in God’s collection. Along the way, sin (and the consequences of it) cracks and peels us until we’re ugly and marred. Some of us even shattered into a million little pieces. It takes a potter- the Potter- to mend us back together. To make us new. So we’re returned to the spinning wheel. Jesus lovingly thumbs the knots out of us. A painful, but necessary process. His gentle hands reshape us in his image. He sends us through the fire to galvanize us for his cause. And we’re being used to carry his living water to the lips of others. Other broken people.
Just something to think about.
