I never realized how much of clay I am in the potter’s hand until sometimes ago.
He made this piece of clay into a lovely vase, and the vase was like “whao, Is this me? This is beautiful”. But the potter took it back to the wheel because of impurities and began to work at it.
At this point, the clay started to cry and complained, and the potter said “you have grown wings of pride which I must break and you have many impurities which I must remove from you, so that I may see my image in you”.
Back at the wheel, the potter started over again, broke it, remould, and put it in the sun, rain, wind, frost, and dew. All this while, the clay was complaining bitterly; “potter! Why are you doing this to me, Do you want to kill me?” and the potter replied “it is for your own good, and I want my image in you”.
As if all that was not enough for the poor piece of clay, the potter took it to the next processing stage, where needling and threading with hands and legs is the order of the day, this is to remove every little impurities, little foxes that spoil the vine such as anger, selfishness, envy, hatred, jealousy, unforgiveness, and replacing them with the fruits of the spirit. At this point, the clay could not complain any more but just to yield totally to the potter.
Having giving the clay a new design, the potter took it to the furnace of a very high temperature to be heated up for strength up to the level at which if at all it falls, it will not break easily. At this stage, the potter put this refined clay vessel on the shelf for display, until it is fit for the master’s use.
Do you know that it is hard to realize how much of clay we are in the potter’s hand?
2corinthians 4:6-10 says “for it is God who said, ‘let light shines out of darkness’ who has shun in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
