The Potter's Hands

The Potter's Hands

A ceramic artist named Naomi described the moment in pottery when a piece becomes marred: the clay has dried slightly unevenly, a bubble has appeared, the wall has thinned where it shouldn't. 'Most beginners want to throw it away and start over,' she said. 'I rework it. Because the clay that has been through difficulty often has a quality the untested clay doesn't have. The scar can be part of the beauty.' She taught a workshop for people in recovery from addiction, and she said that sentence — the scar can be part of the beauty — became the theme of the whole session. 'They already felt like marred clay. They needed to know the Potter doesn't throw away marred pieces.'

Jeremiah goes to the potter's house to receive a word from God, and God points to the potter's ordinary work as a picture of His relationship with His people. The clay is marred — not because of the potter's fault but, implicitly, because of its own properties. The potter's response is not to discard the clay but to rework it into another pot. 'As seemed best to him' — the potter's sovereign wisdom determines the new shape. This is one of the most comforting images for people who feel like failures or discarded work: God does not throw away marred clay. He remolds it. The new pot may look different from the original plan. But it is the work of the same hands, formed with the same intention, shaped by One who has not given up on what He began.