The Perfect Potter

The Perfect Potter

"Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use"? Romans 9:21

"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. Then the word of the Lord came to me: 'O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?...Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand'..." Jeremiah 18:3-6

Clay was brought to me later in life. After we moved to York in 1993 my daughter was blessed with the opportunity to work with pottery in high school. She brought her finished products home to share with us and I became fascinated with the thought of how she took a formless piece of "stuff" and molded it into something useful. Since she enjoyed her classes so much and I was clearly drawn to it, we decided to explore this form of art/craft together and began taking classes from a local potter, Jill Pelligrino.

I grew up in a Christian home, and our congregation frequently sang this old hymn with the lines, "You are the potter, I am the clay...Mold me and make me after thy will...While I am waiting, yielded and still". I sang that song in church without really thinking about the words because I didn't know what being a potter was all about. As I began working with clay, that hymn would creep into my mind and I started thinking about the real meaning behind the song writer's words. The more I meditated on the subject, the more parallels I could find between the whole process of making a pot and our relationship with God. These are things I didn't necessarily think of when creating a pot. They were reflections that came to me at the end of the day with quiet meditation. The following are only a sampling of these thoughts. I'm sure any Christian who has worked with clay has had the same line of thinking.

You Start with a Lump of Clay...
There are different types of clay or "clay bodies". Some potters make their own from scratch digging it right out of the ground and processing it so that it can be used. Most potters I know use clay that is commercially available. Each clay body has unique properties. The potter chooses the type of clay based on what they want to do with it and the finished product desired. Some clay bodies have "grog" or tiny pieces of fired pottery milled into it to give it more standing power. This is good for making sculptures. Others are more "plastic" or pliable for working on a potter's wheel and offer a smoother finish to the surface. There are different colors of clay that have certain aesthetic properties. Earthenware clays require lower temperatures in the kiln to reach their optimum strength. Stoneware needs higher heat yet offers a finished pot that is more resistant to breakage. Sometimes clay bodies become contaminated with certain impurities that may not be known to the potter until the final phase of production. These impurities can have an undesirable impact on how the wares turn out and ruin the finished product leaving the artist very frustrated!

We are God's clay! He created us from the ground up (Genesis 2:7) and uses us in unique ways as He sees fit. We all have our own clay properties. Some of us are made to be around people and are extroverted. Others are more introspective and shy. There are people who express their emotions openly and others who are more reserved. Some of us are driven and won't stop until we drop and others are laid back and easy going. Everyone's sense of humor is different. We have different ways of learning and thinking about things. Some of us are better with using our hands to fix or create things and others thinking theologically about the universe. The list goes on and on. These attributes are not our faults, just how we are different.

We also have impurities! Our "clay body" can become contaminated with anger, jealousy, addictions, selfishness and other sins that ruin us. However, God is the perfect potter and He knows how to use those impurities to His advantage. I thought of this when I heard Pastor Steve give his account of his encounter with God as he was tripping on LSD. God used this contaminant in Steve's life to turn him toward a life of service for Him. God's glory can be displayed when we give Him credit for helping us rid ourselves from sin.

Of course, the ultimate cleanser of our clay body is Jesus!

We Are Made For a Purpose...
When I first stared working with clay, sometimes I would just put some clay on the wheel and whatever shape I was able to get was what I worked with. There are so many different things you can do with the medium of clay! I wanted to try it all. Now, before I even put the clay on the wheel, I usually have a plan for it. The plan may be for a mug, bowl, plate or decorative piece. My decision is based on what I "feel" like throwing, what I have in my completed inventory, if it's for a gift or what I think would be in demand at a show where I'm selling my wares. Most of my ideas for pots come to me as I drift off to sleep or as I'm driving (YIKES). As the wheel turns the clay, my hands form the clay into the shape I have in my mind's eye. As I gain more experience, I am learning that "functional" pottery isn't my gift as a potter; functional being a term we use to denote pots that can hold food and water. More bowls, pitchers, plates and tea pots have made their way from my studio to the trash than to people's kitchens! Instead, I use a set of techniques that lends itself to more decorative purposes.

As the perfect potter, God takes our clay and knows from the get go what he needs from it. He shapes us into who He needs us to be, functional or decorative (and He can do it all). He then takes us as individuals and puts us together in His church to make us work as a whole for His glory (Romans 12:3-8). He takes the extroverts and molds them into public speakers. He takes the musically gifted and puts them on stage. The introverted are behind the scenes doing the detailed work of various ministries. Each person is equally important from the minister speaking on the podium to the one providing child care. Could you imagine a bunch of extroverted evangelists trying to conduct worship and no one being present to work the sound system? Not too many people would show up for worship! We are all important, and there is no shame in any role we take on.

Just as I've struggled with the type of pottery I create, I have struggled in recent years to find what kind of pottery I am. What is my role in His kingdom? I've prayed for God to show me what He needs me to be, and some of my confusion is most likely my resistance to His will. I have faith that he's a patient potter and that He will eventually mold me into what I'm supposed to be if I allow it to happen!


The Stress of the Fire...
After the clay is shaped on the wheel, the excess clay is trimmed from the form when it dries to a "leather hard" stage. There is still enough moisture in the clay to allow fine tuning the shape or carving designs into the surface with various tools. This is the stage of greatest strength for the pot before firing. As the pots dries further it becomes more brittle and gets to the "bone dry" state where almost all the water is gone from the clay. This is called "green ware". For my decorative pots, I add another step at this bone dry stage called "burnishing". I rub a little oil and water mixture over the green ware, let it soak in and then rub a smooth stone over the entire pot. This gives a shiny smooth coat to the surface. After burnishing I do an initial bisque firing in my electric kiln then a second firing in a 50 gallon oil drum with different chemicals and hard wood scraps. The purpose of the first firing is to make the brittle green ware stronger so it can take the even harsher environment of the primitive barrel firing. If all goes well (and MANY things can go wrong for the less than perfect potter) my pots don't crack or explode and the result is a vessel with a varied smoky satin smooth surface that is strong enough to withstand decorative use.

Life happens. All of us have been through fires of varying degrees at least once in our lives. We all have our Job moments. It may be divorce, loss of a loved one, being laid off from our jobs or whatever makes our walk on the Earth harder. For some, it leaves us questioning God's existence or at least his ability to care about what happens to us. One of the blessings we have as Christians is the choice we have to lean on God when we're going through the kiln of life. Chances are, if we have enough faith in Him and we keep our thoughts on Him and we allow Him to hold us up, he'll get us through the fire and we won't come out a "cracked pot". I've had some mini flames about me in my lifetime and it's been easy to turn to God to put out the smoke so far. I pray that if I'm placed in any big fire that comes along I'll come out of it stronger than I went in, just like the pot that went in as a brittle piece of bone dry clay and emerged strong and ready for real service.

Chris Gold

The Wedding

Wow, what an experience! The year and a half build up to the wedding ended on a high and now the let down. It's like the months of January and February. Greg and Anessa are very happy and that's what counts!

In the beginning

Isn't this how it all begins? This is my daughter and her fiance. The wedding day is May 17, 2008. It makes me remember a time not too long ago when she was born. I would wonder about how my children would turn out when they grew up, and here she is! She's studying to be a physician assistant and will have one more year of school left after they're married. He is also in school going for a second degree to teach high school math. When you're young, you can do anything!
I don't have any recent pictures of my son (men are even less inclined to be caught in front of a camera lens). He is finishing up his master's degree in engineering at Virginia Tech. He will most likely be moving back to York to find work. Women, he's unattached!
My husband and I have been married 28 years and are blessed to have 2 Christian children. Neither one has fallen short of those anticipations I had when they were babies.
My husband is a wonderful father (probably why they turned out so well) and great husband. We are enjoying our time in the house sans children. He loves spending time at home "putsing" around. Running keeps him in relatively good physical condition. He goes to a hunting cabin near his Pennsylvania hometown once a year which gives me time to myself and gives him a break from the suburb where we live.
Hmmm, myself. I get bored easily and find myself filling my time with a variety of hobbies and comittments. Here's the short list: Full time nurse practitioner (my vocation), potter, swing dancer (mostly lindy hop, but some Balboa and Charleston), fitness instructor, reader, and reluctant gardener (I consider it a chore rather than a hobby). Because my life is divided among these activities, I'm not great at any of them, but good at most (although my dancing gets stale sometimes). I'm kind of like the Jack of Many Trades and the Queen of None. I HATE house work and am a lousy cook (just ask my kids). Although I am not participating a lot in the programs of the church I attend God is a definite force in my life. In all the various activities I am involved in I pray that I can be a light to Him and be a good Christian example to those I meet along the way.
As this is my first experience blogging, I will sign off now and try to visit my space more often. Andrea, thanks for your tutorship and support!