"But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand" (Isaiah 64:8). 

Pottery is one of the oldest human inventions. During Bible times, vessels were a part of every household. The objects made were usually useful but embellished to be pretty. Potters could shape the clay into anything from a simple bowl that holds food to an elaborate vessel to decorate palaces. An intimate relationship existed between the potter and the vessel with the workmanship and design revealing the potter. The potter knows the “feel” of the clay, when to add water, and how to apply the correct pressure to create something beautiful and useful from, well, basically dirt.  

Pottery can be sun-dried, but if filled with water, it eventually collapses. It is only after firing that the object is protected from the effects of water. One of the most common artifacts found in civilized digs is pottery and its fragments. Even the Dead Sea Scrolls were placed in pottery to protect them in the caves scattered throughout Qumran where they were discovered centuries later.  

Considering the history and usefulness of pottery, it is not surprising that the image of a potter appears throughout the Bible. Several passages describe how we are “the work of His hands” (Isaiah 64:8). Images of a beautiful vase or a common bowl may spring to mind depending on how we view God and ourselves, but how often do we consider the forming process? Pottery masters mold by hand or press into forms. Pottery formed by the spinning wheel requires great skill and dexterity to create symmetry. Embellishing requires pressing, carving, or adding to the clay.  

Recently, in Jeremiah 18:4, I stumbled across another aspect of the molding process: "But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make."

Ouch, remake? Starting the molding process again? An expert potter can restart and reshape the malformed clay into a new piece, but our lives? What if everything was okay? We do not want the job loss, broken marriage, cancer diagnosis, or death of a loved one. Pliability in pain. No one likes to be prodded and poked, smashed down to start the shaping process again. Movies and books romanticize the idea of do-overs, but honestly, the remakes can be painfully hard. It takes courage to reshape the broken relationship with God, family, or friends, to trust your body again after a serious medical diagnosis, to move on after the loss of a dearly loved one, to build your life using worn-out tools.  

Reshaping is messy; We need to trust the skilled hands of our Potter. As He works in our lives, His signature design becomes more and more evident. We need to choose to trust that we are pliable in the Master Potter’s hands through the molding and reshaping of our lives.