“Boasting of our wealth and virtues rare,
What are we but bits of earthenware,
Fashioned by the one Great Master’s hand,
Each of us marked with the same Maker’s brand.
Some of us are fashioned tall and fair,
Vase for the mansion, Dresden ware;
Some of us as ornaments prized,
And some of us are useful, yet despised.
Some of us are big pots lined with gold,
And some of us are mugs, and bought and sold.
Some of us are broke – oh, that’s a fact,
And some of us are not broke, only cracked.
Some of us are fashioned fine and true
With every ray of sunlight glinting through;
And some of us are coarse and chopped and stained,
Yet fragrant with the balm of love contained.Earthenware – just earthenware;
Vessels of clay – just earthenware;
All of us made by the one great Potter,
Some white as porcelain, some brown as terra cotta.
Earthenware – just earthenware,
That the Master will repair
When we go to the clay
That we came from, some day.”
Pottery making is one of the oldest forms of art there is, an activity which has been going on for thousands of years, with method, material and product which never change.
The most important piece of equipment is the kiln. It is by putting the clay shape into a high temperature, three times hotter than our domestic oven, that pottery is made.
No gardener likes clay. It is frustratingly sticky on the end of the spade. This is what the pots are made of. But the slightest trace of soil in the clay renders it useless, for when it is fired it will crack and disintegrate. Garden clay from all over the world can be used for pottery, but today most buy it commercially prepared from the craft shops. But it must be pure clay.
Another very important thing to remember is that the clay must always contain the right amount of moisture. It must never be allowed to dry out, or it will become unworkable and crack.
First the clay is kneaded – known as “wedging”. Then comes the shaping, moulding, smoothing out, trimming off the high spots, or the making of high spots; patterns put on with different tools. Some are made out of coils, like sausage shapes, all moulded together. Some pots are done free-hand, others on a wheel. One interesting point I’ve read about: when using the wheel any pot that moves out of centre must be reworked. But all is a matter of sensitive feel by the potter. The lump of clay is held gently in the hands of the potter – it is not roughly hewn into shape of pieces just broken off here and there. Bowls, pots, vases, cups, ovenware and many more. Then, so important is the matter of the right amount of moisture in the clay, that often when it is hot weather the hands must be damp, and each unfinished model must be covered with plastic to keep it soft and pliable.
When this piece of clay has been moulded into the right shape, then comes the drying, to remove all the “free” water. It must be thoroughly dry before it is “fired” – the process of cooking in the kiln. After this initial firing it is taken out and a glaze or decoration is added to the surface; then back into the kiln once more to be finished off.
Now for the spiritual lessons and, again, the method, material and the final product never change.
Even as the clay can be taken out of every part of the world, so God is choosing out of all nations a people to show forth his glory and love. Paul links this special choosing with the idea of being pure, like the pure clay, when he writes, “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification (another word for purity) of the Spirit and belief of the truth; whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Just as the clay must be kept moist, we cannot afford to let a day pass without absorbing some of the Living Water, the Word of Life, into our being, to keep our minds and hearts open and pliable, ready for our Lord’s use. If we become dry and brittle, when he tries to mould us we will be hard, set in our own selfish ways, no more use but to be thrown aside. Israel provides a lesson for us. Scripture describes them as stiffnecked and hard hearted, vessels that were marred. So let us be a people who are ready to hear God’s word and make our lives like his; holy, merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth.
We are being moulded in the hands of the gentle, sensitive Potter. We can be sure he will deal gently with us in love.
“Stay still in the hand of the Potter,
Lie low neath his wonderful touch.
He shapeth and mouldeth in mercy
The clay that he loveth so much.
Surrender thyself to his working,
The curve and the hollow he wills;
Nor shrink from the pain or the pressure,
For the vessel he fashions he fills.”
When working on the wheel, if the pot becomes off centre, as it whirls around, it must be stopped and worked again. If God is not at the centre of our lives we likewise will end up all lopsided and crooked. But to continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel is the work the great Potter can achieve in us.
Yes, we are chosen vessels, not to be empty ones, nor filled with the things of the flesh, but filled with the Spirit, filled with the things of God, filled with righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and meekness, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Sometimes a potter admires another’s work and decides to make a copy of it. When we emerge as the finished pot, we must be like Jesus Christ, who is our model. Often we try to make ourselves fit into someone else’s mould, but Jesus is our example.
Once the supple lump of clay has been moulded it is fired. Peter helps us to understand this part of our pottery making. “…the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” And Paul, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Every man’s work shall be made manifest; for it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.”
An even more important lesson is found in the ornament which must be disguised with glazing. The origin of our word “sincere” is in pottery. When an article cracked, it could be patched with wax and glazed, but the wax filling would allow it to leak. So pots were certified “sincere” (without wax) as a guarantee of their perfection. If we are to be perfect we must be sincere, living examples that God sees not as man sees, but right through to the heart.
It is possible to make a vase that looks beautiful on the outside but is rough and chipped on the inside. Let us remember Jesus’ words to the Pharisees and Sadducees, “Ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within are full of extortion and excess… you appear beautiful outwardly, but within full of dead men’s bones, and all uncleanness… outwardly ye appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Let us be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
The apostle Paul tells us that at present we have the truth in earthen vessels and that we cannot fully comprehend just what it will be like to be immortal beings – then ready for God’s Temple. At present we sin, we repent and start afresh, but then we will be all moulded, shaped, having been through the fiery trial he sends, by pain and suffering, a vessel then completely filled with his Spirit. We will have accepted the moulding and firing in all its steps and become beautiful vessels fit for his Kingdom; or will there be still chips and patches where the glaze has missed, revealing the original clay, spoiling the perfection of the whole which God has attempted to make of us, which we in our selfishness have frustrated by our refusal to accept his moulding work.
These words show us that in this analogy we are not to get things in their wrong perspective. God will always do his part; we are the ones that falter. God does not do it all; we must do our part in faith, trust and obedience.
In God’s house there are two kinds of vessels. Romans 9;21: “Hath not the potter power over the clay and of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another to dishonour?” Was this what was meant in relation to Esau and Jacob? Rebekah was told of these two struggling babes in her womb, “the elder shall serve the younger.” Jacob was an upright man, Esau a man of the earth. In both the Old and New Testament God says, “Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated.” In God’s foreknowledge he knew the character of these two men, nevertheless they each had a free will. In this sense he makes one vessel to honour and to dishonour. Nevertheless, as Paul says, this gives us no right to reply against God, “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why has thou made me thus?” or chapter 11.34, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?”
In Timothy it is recorded, “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.” To help us to be vessels of honour, he urges everyone that nameth the name of Christ to depart from iniquity, to purge himself from ungodliness, to be a vessel of honour, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use. So from the words in Ephesians: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Paul used this word created because H was here in Ephesus that he had to contend with the silversmiths and their lucrative trade of making silver miniatures of the goddess Diana. He was reassuring the brethren that they had become the children of God and were specially chosen, created in Christ Jesus.
But lest we get it wrong, we cannot just sit back and let God do it all, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Being Compassionate