Today I share my sibling’s truth and wisdom with you. I know you will find her as amazing as I do! Here are words from Gayle Paladino, the World’s Greatest Middle Sister!
Can the Clay be the Potter?
I love watching those amazing videos of talented pottery artists. They can take lumps of bland, unyielding clay and create beautiful, colorful and functional works of art. They masterfully apply the skills of kneading, massaging, spinning, molding, glazing, baking and cooling. They understand clay, and how its properties vary based on where it came from and what it’s made of. They know just how much water to add to make the clay pliable, and just how much pressure is needed to achieve the design they fancy. They apply carving tools to add character. Regardless of the process, the result is a true work of art that is perfect in both form and function.
Videos of novice potters are equally enthralling and always humorous. They all have one thing in common. The products of the novice are usually less than aesthetically pleasing, even if they end up being functionally useful. In other words…they ain’t ”purty”…but they work.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken a figurative look at my life and thought to myself…well, it ain’t “purty”, but it seems to be working (even if just marginally), so I’ll keep plodding along in my slightly useful but ugly imperfection. How sad it that!? Yet I can guarantee that each one of you has had that thought and done the same thing. The questions we need to ask after that look around are:
1. Why is my work of pottery…my life…only marginally useful to the community God placed me in?
2. Why isn’t it pretty?
The answer to both questions is I’M NOT A MASTER POTTER! GOD is. I am just a simple lump of clay that He breathed life into.
Isaiah 29:16 (NASB) says:
You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Now that really makes sense. If I’m the clay, how can I ever hope to form myself? I can wiggle, squirm, poke, roll, and shimmy all I want. I can buy all the tools the world has to offer, but I am still just the lump of clay. I simply don’t have the hands, heart or skill of the Master Potter. Rather, I was made to yield to His artistry…to relax into His vision. As the raw material, I’m free to trust the gentle yet firm hands He has wrapped around me. I can take direction and character from the tools He applies to me. I can rest still and calm even when things are spinning madly, or the furnace is burning fiercely around me.
Once I acknowledge my place in his plan and yield obediently to the Master, the next time look around at my life, I will see something different. I will see improved function, with a side of beauty. I will become a useful vessel filled with joy and shining with the beauty that God planned for me.
Have a wonderful week, fellow lumps…and remember what God says: Be still, and know that I am God (and that you are My precious lump of clay). Psalm 46:10, the Paladino Unauthorized Paraphrase. 😉