Fun in the Son…Freedom with Christ
So, if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36, NIV)
July 15th, 2022
REVIVAL: the POTTER and the CLAY
Out of all the illustrations in the Bible, I am intoxicated by references to the Lord God being the Potter and me being the clay. I am moved by Jeremiah 18:2-4, ‘“Go down to the Potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So, I went down to the Potter’s house, and I saw Him working at the wheel. 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.’ (NIV)
Drab and drafty was the shack where He brought me to being. I was innocuous and naïve and curious, and everywhere I looked, a question mark sprouted like weeds and eagerness grew like freshly watered grass. The Potter carried Himself as if humbled by life, wizened with age; there was so much I didn’t understand. His face, lined like a roadmap leading to places I’d likely never see, and His eyes overflowed with all the explanations to my question marks. He appeared chiseled by wisdom and stooped over from living; the answers to all of life’s tests and instructions for every manual carried cautiously in His gnarled hands. A chill traveled my spine as He looked me over like the lump that I was. Carefully, He placed me on the wheel in that old, cluttered shop, where the breeze blew through like holes in an afghan. His gaze saw through me; yeah, just like those same holes. I felt uncomfortable beneath the glare, but oh, how curious I could be, and how warm and gentle His hands were upon my clay as He began to mold.
He worked without pause as the Son came and went and peeked again through another cracked pane. It might have been a hair chilly in that old shack, but I didn’t mind. I was fascinated by what He was creating me to be. It hurt at times, as the wheel and His weathered hands worked away at me. Mostly, it lulled me, the fluid movement of His hands as they changed me and formed me and made me. I kept thinking He might grow tired, but He never gave up. No, not once. Never, did He sleep or cease believing in His masterpiece and what He was forming beneath His hands.
And then it happened. He stopped, and it was as if even the shack held its breath, a pregnant expectancy pulsed in the room. I tried to sit straight up and at attention, but it was difficult beneath the weight of His gaze. Sadly, I watched as He shook His head slowly, then ever so more assuredly. A tear gathered in His eye, but He couldn’t brush it away because His hands remained on me. Never did He let go, even when I wanted to crumble and run, when I panicked and wished I could hide, even when I saw the blemish, the hole in my chest where a heart should be that I guessed He was trying to overlook. I know I gasped too, burying my breathing someplace deep inside myself, so frightened by what His consternation might mean. Why was He looking at me so intensely, so intently, so…so…so lovingly, clucking His tongue and nodding His head?
Very gently, very quietly, very carefully, He took me and began again. He started over, gently, quietly, carefully, and this time, He placed a new heart within me: a heart that beat when His heart beat, one that broke when His broke, one that envisioned far more than I had ever been able to think or imagine, one that loved extravagantly, forgave exceedingly, believed mercifully, lived extraordinarily.
Ezekiel 36:24-26, ‘”For here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put My Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by My commands. You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!”’ (MSG)
Out of all the living things God made, He created mankind to BE. Whatever, whoever, you are, Beautiful You, BE the best version of you; BE the change this world needs; BE filled; BE free!
