Are You A Cracked Pot?

Genesis 2:7

 ⁷Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Jeremiah 18 ¹  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying,  ²"Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce My words to you."  ³Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.  ⁴But 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.  ⁵Then the word of the LORD came to me saying,  ⁶"Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

I have seen in the past an actual potter who came to share at my church teaching us from this scripture and talking about clay and how it is worked and formed.  She shared about how clay can become spoiled and how it can be pushed back down and remade.  It is fascinating, though not fascinating enough to me to make me want to get my hands dirty like that.  (I’ll stick to gardening) I have heard many sermons too on the importance of being a clay pot, moldable by God to be shaped how He desires to hold the living water and be just like He wants me to be. And how He makes us all as different pots for the unique plan He has for us.   

I have some other thoughts on this.  When I watched the shaping and molding by that potter, it looked like a lot of pressure and force and water, and muck. It reminded me of Genesis 2: 7 how God formed man from the dust of the ground.  That would be clay in the potter’s hand.  But also how God works out all that mucky, yucky sin out of us so we can turn out like He wants us to be.   It wasn’t too clean.  It wasn’t easy for that clay.  But it was necessary for a beautiful pot to turn out and not have an air pocket that would make it explode on being fired in the kiln. Thinking on that kiln, it gets pretty hot.  That clay goes through a pretty wretched process to turn out into a lovely pot.  But it is more than one process.  It is multiple.  Like in our lives.

I have always believed that the Holy Spirit flows through us as Living Water into us and out of us to nourish us and others.  It’s kind of like we are a pipeline that He flows and works through here in this world.   

But, in the first place, if we are a pot that is whole and perfect we would fill and fill and fill before finally spilling over to others.  That is a nice thought.  But we sure would keep that Living Water bottled up inside of ourselves a while before we finally overflow and trickle over to the lives right around our immediate circle.  I think that a lot of times we want to be like this pot.   Calmer, less obtrusive, looking good on the outside, Spirit filled on the inside, got it all together with God yet small outflow.

In the second place, I have had a different thought of late on that pot being molded and shaped by God.  Perhaps instead of thinking of ourselves as this wonderful beautiful perfectly formed clay pot.  We should consider that most of us are really cracked pots.  I know you are probably thinking right now that I am the cracked pot J but consider, that in all of our lives, we go through lots of difficulties, hardships, sorrows, pain,  etc.  Some of us experience more than others but we all have them.  I like to think of it like maybe God shapes us by letting us go through those tough times and even though we may lose a chunk out of our pot, or get a crack here or there as we survive through another time of great stress we are really turning into that vessel that it pleased the potter to make. 





by T. Whipple '08

Consider then that maybe we are just all cracked pots, broken by all the things in life that we experience yet we’re fragilely, lovingly held together by the Master so that His Living Water can flow through us and out to all those around us to water and nourish more of them.  Another thing to think further on is that in Genesis 3:19 He says dust we are and to dust we return.  The more chipped and cracked we get, the more pieces get dropped and smashed, the more we are crushed back to dust, but all the more we pour Him out to others. Perhaps we need to  look at the end of our life here on earth as when we finally return to dust, fall totally apart, watered our last soul and that is when He takes us home to celebrate the beautiful vessel we became for Him. 

Are you broken and cracked?

 Let’s get dusty!    J