Walking around much like Eeyore at times, Pooh comes beside and says, “Lets check out this house! Perhaps there is something sweet inside!” Eeyore replies, “I can’t find my tail. I just want to hide.”
Characters tell our stories time and again. And it helps us chuckle and get back on the horse again!
Today, I accept the invitation from ‘Pooh’ and go for a visit to the House of the Potter. I open the door and I see with my eyes, and hear with my ears, the Potter, Himself, talking to me. (1)
“I, the Potter, am creating from clay, (originally something common and worth very little). I will make it useful, above any price. I will make this vessel, even more than just useful, I will make this vessel, Beau – ti – ful! I AM able, I Am all wise. (2)
“Yes, I, the Potter, make beautiful things out of earth. I raise it up to express all that I AM. I make all things beautiful in time, I AM able. This is My work. (3)
So, I watch and I listen with the wheel spinning around. Around and round. The Potter throws the clay – and I must say, “This is my life!” Going around in circles and again, and feeling ‘bruised’ by the Artist, but as I watch it all becomes clear that my thoughts are marred, as I watch the Potter and the clay, they soon became one in His hands this day.
“What’s going on?!” My life goes on in circles, it seems. I’m heading no-where right now! “Get me off this wheel! I want to get off!” We look for all the ways somehow.
Unfortunately, unlike the lump of clay on the wheel, we have choice to steel away and not seek God’s will.
But the picture before me: the Potter at the wheel with a thrown down lump of clay being made to be still. Even amidst the turning and moving around and around, pressure is applied and the lump seems sound. So, I think of the pressures and problems and struggles of life, oh if we be but clay and ‘be still’ and not strive!
But we throw ourselves off the wheel of the Potter, landing on what we think is adventures evermore. But then we find we are stepped on and walked on and beaten and broken, and we cry out, “O God, pick me up. I am hurting and sore!” (4)
And He does! He does! The Potter picks the clay up again, and throws it center on the wheel to be a new creation!
The clay does no more demanding. The clay is yielded and softens as the water is brought to its hardness by the Potter’s hand’s touch! (5)
As I watch, I can see so clearly what is so hard in life; to trust the Potter, to completely yield – this is what’s best! He makes beauty out of hard old dirt. He has a plan, He can be trusted. ‘Be Still’, let us pass this test! (6)
Who is the Potter? Who is the Lord? As the Master Craftsman applies pressure and water, and lovingly makes a vessel of honor, to give honor to Him, the One who is good, the one who is patient, forgiving and so very kind. He chose us when we were rebelling. He chose to pick us up after our fall.
He is the Potter and He has saved this broken and hurting lump of clay! And a new (old) song I sing each day:
“When I think about the Lord, how He saved me, how He raised me, how He filled me up with the Holy Ghost! How He healed me to the uttermost! When I think about the Lord, How He picked me up, He turned me around and He set my feet, on solid ground!’ It makes me want to shout, “Halleluiah!” Thank You Jesus, Lord You’re worthy of all of the glory, all of the honor, all of the praise! …” (When I think about the Lord).
How do I know the Potter loves me so? The Bible tells me so:
(1) “Go down to the Potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel.” Jeremiah 18:1,2.
(2) He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10.
(3) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
(4) But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. Jeremiah 18:4.
(5) “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? Romans: 9: 20,21.
my life unfolds at the Potter's house …
(6) For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:6-10.