PERCHED ON THE MASTER POTTER’S WHEEL

     “If you want an easy A, take Ceramics 101. Or that was the standard joke on campus. All you had to do was show up in class. Pure and simple.  ‘I can do that! I thought, draped over the tattered arm of the dormitory couch, munching on carrot sticks and studying the next semester’s syllabus.

     On the first day of class, we craftsman wannabes watched in awe as the instructor flung a slimy gray hunk of clay onto her well-worn potter’s wheel. Her feet masterfully went back and forth, spinning the wheel as her hands traveled gracefully upward, her fingers caressing the clay, her thumbs busily forming a center opening, her shoulders swaying to the rhythm of the wheel – virtually a magnum opus unfolding before our very eyes. Then, voila! An amazing transformation: that gooey blob had become a tall, stately ‘vahz.’ I could not bring myself to call it a vase, it was that stunning.

     ‘ Wow! I can do that!’ I declared. Moments later, I stared intently at my own slimy gray blob, which had been plopped unceremoniously onto my very own potter’s wheel. It seemed to stare back, as if to say, ‘Go ahead. Make my day.’ I patted my hunk-of-clay-with-an-attitude gingerly, hoping we could be friends. Then I threw it firmly onto the center as the instructor had done and started the wheel in motion. round and round it turned, slowly at first, then faster and faster.

     As it gained momentum, a funny thing happened. My hands, cupped around the blob like a miser around his pieces of gold, began to vibrate. Then my elbows joined in, then my shoulders. Before I knew it my whole upper torso was in convulsions as my work of art flew off the wheel, soured through the air like a runaway bagel, and landed – splat! – across the room. My further attempts yielded similar results. I was sure other students began to secretly wager where my next flying object would touch down. Every class period was the same: whomp…whirr…whe-e-e-e!

     My grade! Well, it was not the coveted A I had sought. ‘Why?’ you ask. ‘What’s so tough about shaping clay on a spinning wheel?’ That’s just it! It was the clay. And the wheel. And the spinning. All three.

     Years later, I came upon a bible passage in Jeremiah 18 about the potter and the clay and made a startling discovery: I’m somewhat like that slump of clay – gray, mediocre, unwieldy. Yet, in the strong, skilled hands of the Master Potter? Well, I found that I have – we all have – the potential of becoming a vessel for his use and glory.

     How does he do it? ah, there’s the rug. The Bible declares that the ‘wheel’ of adversity is one of God’s finest tools for molding us into his image. And the ‘kiln’ of affliction is its accomplice. So, when I find myself on his wheel, I’m learning to ask myself some humbling questions:

            Am I moldable? Am I willing to yield to his designer plans for me?

            Can I endure the fiery furnace as a crucial part of the process?

            Do I trust him to make me into a vessel – valuable masterpiece – for his use?

     I want to live in such a way that when the end comes, I will look back and see a life spent eagerly perched on god’s wheel, willingly submitting to his transforming touch, patiently enduring the fiery trials of the kiln…then joyously fulfilling his purpose for me, for his glory.

     We all marveled at our ceramics teacher’s ability to take a blob and made a ‘vahz.’ How much more do I marvel at our Master Craftsman – amazed, not that he can but that he desires to make a masterpiece of us.

He chooses to take us ordinary clumps of clay- unsightly, unusable, unworthy – do his miracle work in us, and put us to use. an ordinary person in the creative hands of an extraordinary Designer- who can imagine the potential!

    ‘ Lord, I think of those times when I, too, stubbornly catapulted myself into parts unknown and landed – splat! – in the most unlikely places at the most inopportune times, and you patiently picked me up, dusted me off, and set me lovingly back onto your wheel…and, well, I just want to say…thanks’.” by Sandra Glahn

Portions taken from CERAMICS 101: PERCHED ON THE MASTER POTTER’S WHEEL, found in Life Savors, Savory Stories to Inspire Your Soul, pgs. 69 – 72, published by Tyndale House Publishers, Ind., Carol Stream, Ill.

“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.”  (Is. 64:8 NKJV)

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