The Potter's Wheel

 

On the Gulf Coast of Mississippi there lived an older gentleman who throughout his life was a professional potter. He and his wife owned a pottery store in the small town of Ocean Springs where many artisans lived and worked. One night a church group of young people were invited to their home for a devotional. When they arrived, the potter took the teens into his shop where he sat down at his potter’s wheel. He began his talk by placing a piece of clay on the moving wheel. It was just a lump of clay with no shape at all. As he worked the clay he talked of Jesus and how He is our potter, and we are the clay. He said that Jesus looks at us the same way he looks at the clay on his wheel. He anticipates what will emerge and hopes for a beautiful piece to come together but he can never tell until it is finished. He took his hands and encircled the clay then began very gently to mold it. He worked the bottom then the sides and the top never forgetting to have his hand on the inside of the pottery to help hold it up and shape it. Always adding water as his hands and the clay dried out, he again worked from the bottom as he moved his skillful hands up the sides once more. Soon one could begin to see the result of his patient work. He explained to the young people how our Savior does the same thing when we love and obey Him. He patiently molds us and shapes us inside and out into a Christian, pure and undefiled by the world. Soon a beautiful piece of pottery came into being right before their eyes, perfectly formed and useful to its owner. As the completed piece sat on the rotating potter’s wheel, he asked the teens to call out some words that depicted sin. From the group came words such as: drugs, sex, drinking, using bad language, immodest dressing, and smoking. With every word that was called out the potter took a small piece of wet clay and threw it at the vessel on the wheel making it misshapen and ugly and finally useless as it fell apart. Everyone watched intently as the pottery collapsed and fell in on itself. He explained that this is what sin will do to the Potter’s work. He quietly retrieved the broken piece of pottery and with water and his hands worked it all together to form the original lump of clay and placed it on the wheel once again. Without a word the potter formed another perfect piece of pottery and removed from the wheel.

[Isaiah 64:8] “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay; you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Jesus lovingly molds us but if we let sin reign in our life it will destroy everything the Potter intends for us. Jesus our Savior wants us to live for Him and be useful in His Kingdom. Is sin creeping in and destroying you from within? No matter how sinful one becomes and no matter how far from God one has drifted away, repentance and forgiveness is yours if one is willing to return to God and confess Him as Lord (1 Peter 5:5-11). If one submits to Jesus, He is willing to restore the sinner’s life and again work it into a beautiful, useful life (Titus 2:11-14). Is your heart right with God? “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Where will your home be after this life is over? Look for the shape the Potter made you. Are you still that shape or has sin collapsed the Potter’s creation? “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). “…Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart… Peter said to them, ‘Repent …be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins’…” (Acts 2:38). Does your life reflect the Potter’s intent for you?