Process of Creation – Devotion 63

To create something beautiful from a clump of nothingness amazes me.  Bringing an image to life, shaping a vision, and carefully reconfiguring is such a gift we don’t often experience.  That is one of the many reasons I love pottery.  Each piece is carefully created in the hands of a visionary.  Whether it turned out exactly as it began is not the point.  Much is learned in the process of becoming.  Every color and design is an experiment.  It is the joy of bringing something to life in the very shape of your fingers.

It doesn’t always go as planned.  Sometimes it doesn’t turn out at all.  It can easily go back to the lump of nothingness from which it began, only to be reshaped one more time.  Sometimes it is a failure.  But the potter continues to spin – maybe not today, but does continue to create.  The adventure of shaping is not lost.

We are being shaped as well.  Today we may feel like a beautiful piece almost ready to be fired – and then it all falls apart – cracked right down the middle.  Or we could feel like a big lump of nothingness when we are really just before becoming a work of art.  We don’t always understand the process.  We aren’t always grateful for the adventure of the spin.  We would prefer an easy process that creates amazing beauty without a lot of effort.  But that just isn’t reality.  And we know it.  We know this isn’t the way it goes.  So why not embrace the joy of being shaped and molded?  Why not find the hope in knowing we have the potential to become so much more?  What if we simply yielded to the process of being formed and re-formed.  It hurts, yes.  It isn’t always beautiful, sure.  It sometimes is heartbreaking, definitely.  But there is so much more.  We are being made into something beautiful.  Our artist created the sun and the moon, trees and birds, flowers and animals – he knows beauty.  And our artist is creating something beautiful in us too.  Spin away, Lord…spin away.

Focus Scripture:

Jeremiah 18:1-6

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” ³ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴ The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶ Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

Photos included in Devotions are captured by David Cain – The Cain Gallery.  Photos are available for sale by contacting The Cain Gallery