Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, November 28, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
In Isaiah, this idea of the potter is gentler, I think. In Isaiah it just says that God is the potter, and we are the clay, the work of God’s hands (Is 64:8) But this passage is more about God recognizing that God’s creation has gone wrong in some way and crushing it back into a formless lump before making something else. That is, God giving up on the first attempt (which was irreparably flawed) and doing something different with it. It is, in a word, a threat. Yikes!
Personally, I like to think that God is more of a Japanese potter, who practices kintsugi, or the art of pottery repair. Broken pottery is joined back together with a special lacquer and then painted with gold or silver, actually highlighting the break and making its repair a thing of beauty. None of us is perfect. Not matter how well-constructed we are, we will all, at times, break. God does not toss us into the scrap heap, or re-form us into something fundamentally different from ourselves. God picks us up, dusts us off, and loves us back into usefulness. Our scars make us even more beautiful, especially when we see and acknowledge them in others, too, and know that we are all so terribly valuable to God that we are worth saving, no matter what.
How does God shape and heal my life?
