Isaiah 64:8

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I started taking a pottery class this year. It was, for me, a great way of being able to take time out to do something artsy at least one day a week. It really calms me & helps keep me less stressed out.

A lot of times when I'm throwing, it brings to mind Isaiah 64:8. I have always liked the imagery of this verse, ever since I started taking pottery classes in high school. I could really understand what it meant; about how malleable we are as humans, and about how much care it takes to shape the clay on the wheel while you're working it. If you've never seen it done, here's a montage of the pictures I took while I was in Gatlinburg, TN last August with my roommates (you can click on it to see it better).



Well, last night I was working on this pot:



And I was really nervous about it. You see, I've taken pottery classes numerous times in the past but our instructor at Studio S seems to think I picked up some bad habits from my former instructors. So, it's like I have to unlearn everything I was taught in the past to relearn it his way.

Yesterday, I had my instructor looking over me and occasionally telling me how to do something better, or how to make what I was doing easier. Sometimes he would take over and fix something I did incorrectly, a couple of times he praised me and told me he was proud of me; and it really made me think about how much it was like me in my life.

Just my everyday...

I started my life instructed in the ways of the world where we're taught it's all about us. We know basic knowledge of how were going to do things. How to make our lives look good and how to make it work out ok. And now, after being saved by grace, here I am now thinking I have this control and working on what it will become, but the whole time God is there watching over me, telling me how to do something better, teaching me ways to make what I'm doing easier (i.e. trusting Him & following His will). Sometimes when I am completely broken or have amazing clarity in my faith (I'm pretty stubborn...) I finally give up and allow God to take over my life and help me fix things... And someday, when I die and go to heaven, I will hear those words "well done, good and faithful servant".

I have the peace of knowing that the perfecter of my faith is in charge of it all, and I'm glad my pottery class reminded me of that...