Plop down and enjoy!
Centering....This used to be a very challenging part of the process for me. (If you're thinking.... right at the beginning?!?! You're thinking right.) The issue is that if this part is wrong, the rest of the piece will be difficult to work with. You have to speed up the wheel, keep the clay wet so your hands don't stick to it, keep your elbows on your knees, and push the clay to the center of the wheel. (Side note: I was at the studio this morning and while typing this very post, I can feel the soreness in my arms start to set in....). It can happen very fast, and sometimes it takes minutes of struggle....... but there's this glorious moment, when your hands stop moving and the clay is perfectly spinning inside of them. It's centered. You're ready. You have to very carefully take your hands off the clay at this point, trying to remove them evenly. The slightest movement can throw your clay off-center.
Psalm 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
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Opening. Also, a very particular part of the piece. You have to steady yourself. I think I forget to breathe when I open my clay!! It's a quick motion. This is the step I usually throw off the balance of my piece. I will go too fast or neglect water, so then the cylinder looks like it's doing a hula dance. Not good, people. So here's what I've learned:
Matthew 15:18: "But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them."
Love your piece! (See the heart my hands make?) Same as we walk with God. I get myself all centered and straightened out and doing all of the godly things, and I open my mouth and the real me comes out. I only look good from the outside. I need to envelop myself with the love of God, because until that is my identity, I will continue to fall again and again (and again). I am foremost, God's child, loved and adored. The only way I will be able to be spreading love is if I'm so filled up by God's love, I overflow. "...my cup overflows." -Psalm 23:5 You can't produce it within yourself. You can't make it up. You just bubble!
1 John 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us."
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PULLING! This is my favorite part!!!
I distinctly remember my high school art teacher complimenting the way in which I was catching on and really pulling (literally, ha!) off a piece all by myself! Sincere words of encouragement from her lips were not rattled off without emotion. She is the kind of person who says what she means. I like that about her. So when she said, "You're becoming a real professional. Next time you'll have to do the class demonstration." I was bursting with satisfaction.
Psalm 40:2 - He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He lifted (pulled) me out of the slimy pile of clay! It's like the clay has no idea what's in store for it. Wedging, yes. Sticking, centering, and opening, okay. But pulling. This is the repeated motion of lifting the bottom to the top. Clay pieces tend to be heavy, but have the potential to be light if you pull well. Beginners (aka me) have pieces that are very bulky on the bottom. That needs to be pulled!
This. This is where I am today. I am being pulled. I been reworked and re-centered a few times around..... and here, I stand. Out of the pit. On Christ's firm foundation.
What are the next steps for me, oh Potter?
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Trimming the top is an overlooked, yet important step.
If your top is wobbly or off-center and you continue to pull, you will keep pulling into the off-center position. Trim that piece that's wrecking the rest of your perfectly good piece and .... waaaalllaa!
Matthew 7:19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
This is funny, because eventually the pot will go through a firing in the kiln. Jokes!
Okay, but really. As an older sister, I do think about the impact I make. Is it things I do that really influence the many young ones that look up to me? What about my peers? What about - yes - people that are older than me?
I DO worry about these things! I've felt and others have witnessed the transformation of my heart. But what about people I don't know so well? What about strangers? What about my parents? How do I get them to see the evidence? See that the overwhelming, pursuant love of God has captured my heart. See that I run to Him for my identity now, not to things of the past. See that I want to be better. See that I want to learn more about my relentless Savior, and that I want to be more like Him. See that in my weakness, I am strong. See that in my failure, I lean on Him who is perfect.
How do I live a life like that????????????
Patience. This week, God has whispered the word "patience" to my heart. I have none, basically. I am going to learn. I know it. Here's the process. I will be pulled, shaped, fired, and reworked (if necessary). This is a season of patience. And I must learn.
I am ready. I'm nervous. I am fragile. But, as I slowly pull the clay from the bottom to the top, I have to let the clay smooth in my hands, 2, 3, maybe 4 times before I move up. It's a slow process. Patience in this step pays off. It's vital.
Romans 12:12, "....be patient in tribulation..."
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Isaiah 45:5 speaks here, "I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no GOd. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,"
So the piece is centered and opened and I was pulling. It began to wobble. My strong, sturdy hands (for the sake of the comparison....) hold the walls upright. I bring back balance and order. The vase doesn't know it, but I just saved it from toppling over!
Isaiah 45:9 says, "Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does you work say, 'He has no hands'?"
I'm in the midst. I have a curvy spine and a chemical imbalance. I have eating issues and eyes that can't see. I just want to throw my hands in the air, and say, "God, why did you make me this way?!" I do. I really do. But I am the clay, and HE is the Potter. Though on Saturdays in the studio, I am the potter. In life, I am the clay. So, what do I do with a piece that is frustrating? I keep working on it. I don't give up. I pursue its potential, because I know the beautiful pottery that can come of even an off-center piece. I work at it. And so it is with me.
God pursues me. He won't give up. I'm gonna be a beautiful vessel (of His love). His mighty hands are holding my life together. His hands are holding me. He loves me - how I am. He sees the potential in me. He wants to soften my heart and mold me into a light for Him in the darkness of the world.
These things are true for me, and they are true for you.
He's relentless.
The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)
He does it, because He loves us.
That's all there is to it. It's a mystery to me, why a perfect God would love a broken, wayward sinner like me. But it's a beautiful mystery. Maybe I don't need to understand every angle of His love. I need to receive it. I need to receive it, fill up, bubble over, and share it. That's how it goes.
He's creating me to be a vessel that overflows.
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