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Jeremiah 18:1-6 (NIV)
At the Potter’s House
18 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.
Watching a potter shape a piece can be rather fascinating. Things seem to move rather quickly from a formless chunk of clay to a beautiful vessel. Yet, getting the formless chunk of clay ready to be shaped is an aggressive undertaking. The clay must be prepared, made strong and pliable. If “the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do”, then clay must be prepared again. Today, let us stand ready to be shaped by God alone. God is continually at work, renewing and reforming us.