Cracked Pots

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Corinthians 4:7

Jars of clay ... earthen vessels ... pottery ... cracked pots. Many descriptions that all seem profoundly appropriate. What are you today?

Perhaps you are a jar of clay. Not yet formed ... or re-formed as the case may be. "...so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him ... Jeremiah 18:4". Are you in a season of life where the Potter is re-shaping and re-molding? Are you willing to be held and shaped by the Hands of a Master Potter? Have you become so hardened that you are no longer pliable? Is God wanting to do a transforming work in your life but you are unyeilding? Has life so hardened your shape that He is unable to form you into the jar He wishes you to be?

Maybe today is a time of being that earthen vessel. A time of being filled. Perhaps the painful work of molding and forming has passed and you are now being prepared for use. Is the Father cleaning you out and preparing your vessel to be filled by Him for His use? Is He filling you up with Himself? Is your vessel available or does He have some work to do to prepare you? Maybe your vessel has been sitting on a shelf and has gathered dust and cobwebs. Or perhaps you've been using your vessel according to your own plans and it is filled with the things of the flesh. Have you given yourself over to be filled by Him for His purposes?

Pottery. Useful for serving others. Providing food and water. Blessing those at the table with sustenance. Being used to serve those around you. You are full to overflowing with the power and presence of the One Who is pouring Himself out through you into the lives of others. No longer just sitting on the shelf, but prepared, filled and useful in serving others.

And then there are the cracked pots. You've been in the Potter's Hands many times ... re-molded, re-shaped, re-formed ... always willing to be fitted for a new purpose ... pliable, malleable. You've served others before. But have those you've served been careless? Perhaps you've been chipped and pieces broken away by life's experiences. There may have even been those moments when you've found yourself shattered into a million pieces on the floor. You wonder if you'll ever be put back together. You wonder if you can ever be a useful vessel again. Surely you are so broken, even though glued back together, the vessel will never again be able to contain it's contents. There are holes and cracks. How can the Potter even begin to make you useful again?

I've recently started painting ... not houses, but pictures! I'm not very good at it, but I certainly enjoy the distraction. My latest artistic adventure was to paint three cracked pots. They have obviously been long discarded as they are out in the dirt with grass (NOT the easiest thing to paint!) growing up around them. They are no longer useful for anything except a still-life. I've chosen to hang that painting in my office. I find myself looking at it and wondering about the life of those pots. Who has used them and why? What have they served? Who have they served? What family events have they blessed? Have they fed a hungry man or quenched the thirst of a parched woman? Have they been filled with beautiful wildflowers to brighten the room of one who is dying?

Where do you find yourself today? Where are you in your journey with the Potter? Listen. Respond. Yield.

... more tomorrow.

Be blessed!