Shards of the Past
I loved college. I have always loved school, even to the point that elementary teachers actually worried about me. I loved being active on campus - it wasn’t often I walked from one end of the campus to the other without hearing my name being called.
But there is one part of college that I hated more than anything. Something I had to endure twice a year, every year - signing up for classes!
Talk about wild intensity. The internet was slower than it is now and classes/professors filled up so quickly. If you were right there ready to click the class and hit save the minute it opened up - you were screwed.
I literally thanked God after I signed up for my last classes my senior year. I remember the relief that I would never feel that intensity again.
But….I have. But it is for something cooler than college classes - it has been for pottery. To get pottery from my favorite potter, you have to be ready to hit “add to cart” and immediately check out the second her site goes live for a restock.
My hands are sweating, my chest is thumping, my eyes are darting all over the screen. I pay with Apple Pay so I don’t have to waste time typing my card number. It’s total laser focus for a piece of cute potter
I love good imagery. One image that God has given to us in His Word that has stuck with me is the image of the Potter and the clay.
I had a devotions book in my preteens/early teens called God is an Artist and You’re a Masterpiece by Lorraine Peterson. I remember reading the name and looking at the art on the cover in my childhood bedroom so well. I can see the imagery of God forming this intricate work of art like Michelangelo.
Jerusalem was known as “God’s people.” If you go all the way back to Exodus, we see these people being delivered from slavery alongside Moses. From there though, we see this pattern in His people - they get delivered and things are cushy. Then they rebel in some way (worship other gods, are ungrateful, etc.), which then leads to them turning their backs. Sound familiar? It should because this is how the Advent Stories series began.
This is a generational thing seen over and over again from the Exodus up to the prophet Isaiah (and really - it’s a cycle from Exodus until the current day for HIs people). Isaiah saw one God’s people rebelling and starting to turn their backs. As Isaiah is writing, he witnesses the exile of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Isaiah begins to speak God’s Word to His people.
And that’s where we come back - Isaiah is speaking to the people of God and for God about their rebellion and their generational back turning. The people were likely in need of a sign that things would get better, that God would rebuild them. And Isaiah makes this analogy in His prayer to God shared with HIs people:
But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
That image - the Artist bent over the potting wheel with clay stuck in His fingernails and the dirty water dripping from His elbows.
Have you ever watched videos of this? A lump of clay literally thrown hard onto the wheel so it sticks. Dirty water is poured onto the clay in a perfect ratio. And the wheel spins…the hands of the potter do all the work. A basic mug or bowl is first made into a taller than needed pot and then squished back down into its final shape. Their dirty hands mold the once lumpy slab of clay into a bland mug. Tools are used to add details and brushes apply glazes.
The pot finally makes it into the kiln for firing.
But have you ever watched the videos where when they cut the pot off the wheel with the thread it folds into itself? Or ever seen a potter accidentally drop their nearly finished piece on the way to the kiln? Or worst yet - it makes it to the kiln and the settings were wrong so the piece is ruined?
Ever feel like that piece of pottery? Have you felt like the foundation was good, but you fall into yourself before you could even be made stronger? Have you felt like you are on your way to the finish line and life drops you onto the concrete studio floor and pieces go flying?
Do you know potters still use that shattered piece? I’m talking professional potters here - not some “in theory” thing. Did you know those broken pieces on the studio floor can be swept up and crushed even more to be used again?
That shattered powder of broken pieces when done correctly is called grog. Potters use grog to make their pieces stronger. Even 5% is enough to make large sculptures (Source). Grog can even be used to make the piece more beautiful with unique textures.
I’ve dropped a dinner plate down the back porch of my childhood home. I remember my heart dropping into my gut. I remember the tears as I watched my dad sweep it up and put it into a garbage bag. What we common folk see as trash - literally - the potter sees as something useful.
What if this is what God is speaking through Isaiah? Yes, He wants to be bent over the wheel forming you and refining you. But what if that includes the potsherd from the past? And what if that means that past has to be crushed even more?
Sounds to me like it’s going to hurt! But what if - what if…. - the end is a piece of art so beautiful (like some good Maker’s Place Studio pottery)?
After the 2023 our family had - I’m going to lean into the shattered pieces on the studio floor and let God crush it some more to make (and use) the grog from me.
