The Potter's Hands

Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

I saw this picture this week and it got me thinking about the verse above...

I took pottery in school so I remember the process-

• Cut a segment of clay off the bulk block
• Knead it to get all the air pockets out and any hard spots gone so that the clay will work smooth
• Throw it on to the wheel so that it's fairly centered and can be worked properly 
• Then begin the process of creating your pot, bowl, plate... sometimes it starts good and has an issue and needs to be squashed and reworked to be thrown again.
• Green fire it- this is the initial firing before you glaze it. If something goes wrong here then your project explodes and goes into a soaking process for quite a while so it will become pliable and usable again.
• If it has survived the green firing then it gets glazed and fired again... it is after this firing that you have a finished project, shiny and beautiful.

I look at my life right now, it was in my eyes the finished project, and it was beautiful to me. God gave me an amazing marriage, great family and we all love serving Him but lately I feel like an exploded pot... That being said, I also know that if I allow it, God will take me, and as I soak in His word, in worship and prayer then I will, like that greenware become pliable once again. I choose to willingly submit myself to the potters hand. What form the finished project will become- I haven't a clue, I only know that like any true artisan, the Lord wants to create in me a beautiful finished project. Only He knows what that is to look like.

My prayer... Lord, keep me pliable, let me not fight what you are doing with in me. Take me, work out the 'bubbles' and problem spots that could hamper the finished product. I want to become what you created me to be... 

This is good to remember in life, no matter what stage or season- no matter the calm or the storms; The best thing to say; I give my self to the Great Potters hands.