O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of your hand Isaiah 64 v 8.
My aunt is a Potter. She puts her apron on and sits at her wheel or table and makes all kinds of useful and beautiful creations. She is not afraid of dirt and mess and her arms are stronger than mine although she’s forty years older. She kneads, pounds, rolls, smooths, spins and holds clay, gently yet firmly, in her bare hands until lumps of dust become treasure.
This potter aunt has got high standards. She has her systems and her methods and after decades of experimenting she knows what works and what doesn’t. She makes things strong and precise. Often times I have walked beside her shelving unit, admiring all her wares, and it has occurred to me that the ones she calls ‘rejects’ are always the ones I am drawn to. The ones where the colour has run and the ones that are not perfectly centred catch my eye. Those vessels that lean slightly and the ones that are misshapen stand apart from all the rest, whimsical and charming.
The imperfections tell me I am admiring hand-made goods, and anything hand-made is always more valuable than similar items that got mass produced. When a beating heart invests itself in creating, it trumps robots, machines and conveyor belts every time. Hand-made, hand-woven and hand-crafted is often not cost effective, but it’s the best way to produce something unique. And just like the fingerprints of the creator are woven into the very fabric of the creation, the heart of the creator gets stamped like a signature on each piece. I often don’t even have to look underneath pottery pieces to check for my aunt’s signature fish, I can tell just by looking at it, that it was made by her.
We are like clay and God is the Potter. Everything He does is good and the end product is always perfect. He moulds us as we submit to His heart of love, His kind eyes and His merciful, tender hands. He doesn’t ever make rejects, but He does make “one-of-a-kinds.” He, intentionally, causes the colours to run and the shapes to vary so that no one piece is quite like another. We might have seen too many adverts in our time conditioning us for what is perfect and acceptable, and when we walk along the displays of our lives, we might count ourselves and others as the substandard products. Maybe we even disqualify ourselves and others from carrying out the purposes we were designed to fulfil. I want to blow the whistle on that lie today like an umpire might alert teams to a foul. Stop the play a moment and let me tell you the truth. You are just right and there is nobody else in the world like you. Your flaws may be the very things that win you favour. You are being carefully made, and it’s a process. In the studio of our Creator, we can keep coming back and climbing onto the wheel for adjustments and repairs and remoulding. There is nothing He cannot do.
A friend of mine recently stepped out to do something she knew she needed to do, even though she felt daunted and unqualified. “You can do it. Life’s not perfect,” her wise little girl told her. We’ve got nothing to lose and so much to gain when we step into all that we are supposed to be doing. We don’t have to be experts at anything before beginning to do those very things that excite us and terrify us all at once; the very tasks that we were created to do. Forgetting what is behind us, not worried about what is before us, choosing now to be vulnerable and authentic. Stepping off the shelf with all the courage and confidence of a rare creation, a priceless piece, hand-made with love.
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