BY TAYLOR JORGENSEN
Something I have thought a lot about during the time spent in quarantine is what I can do while I’m stuck here. Thinking that this was the right attitude, I started trying to figure out ways to entertain myself— what hobbies I could develop, books I could read, foods I could make, etc. It all left me feeling flat. In reconsidering Jeremiah, I found myself drawn to Jeremiah 18, The Potter and The Clay. I was struck by how much I felt that God’s messages to Jeremiah spoke to my frustrations. While I had been actively trying to figure out what would be the best path for me, instead of figuring out where God wants me to be, I was focusing on what I wanted. As we learn from Jeremiah, we are always better off paying attention to God’s intentions for us.
Right off the bat, the very first thing God does in this chapter is tell Jeremiah to wake up and go visit the potter: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words” (Jeremiah 18:2). God instantly directs Jeremiah to get up and follow orders. He wastes no time. Then, Jeremiah arrives at the potter’s house, where the potter “was working at his wheel” (Jeremiah 18:3). The potter was already at work, set to task, molding his clay. It begs the question: what truly important thing could I be doing right now? The potter knows his purpose— “And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do” (Jeremiah 18:4). The potter is attentive to his work and trusting of his artistic insight. He sees when something has gone wrong and he skillfully reworks the spoiled clay into something better, according to his own expert judgement.
When God asks, “can I not do with you as this potter has done?” He is asking Jeremiah and His people to have faith in His ability to transform them and we are being asked the same: to consider God as this expert potter and ourselves as the clay (Jeremiah 18:6). In recognizing our position as clay we must also realize what qualities of clay—good and bad— are found in ourselves. We can be both malleable and hardened, improved and spoiled, vessels for good and vessels for evil. Our “final product” depends on the potter, our God, but also on our willingness to be molded. The basic clay found in the ground has one big difference from ourselves: it does not choose to harden itself against the potter. It may be left to harden, but its actions are always passive. We have been granted the ability to choose whether or not we are open to the hands of our potter, however, the potter remains the ultimate expert on what should happen to the clay. Clay cannot mold clay.
We can do whatever we feel will fulfill us, but “that is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:12).The potter has the tools and the ability to shape us, but we make the assumption that we have all that we need. Think of what Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). All that we physically have will fade away, but it is the water that Christ gives to us that will lead us to eternal life. This is the water of our potter. When the Earthly potter adds regular water to hardened clay he is able to soften, shape, and form it into something better. Imagine what God can do with us and the water that grants eternal life.
That is what we need and it is what God provides for us, but our ability to recognize this need in ourselves is vital. Without realizing our own inability to shape and care for ourselves, we will harden as spoiled clay. It is easy to go down a path of thinking all about what I want to do or what would make me happy, but my ultimate happiness lies in my ability to put aside my own wants and frustrations, see all that God has given me, and allow Him to shape me into the person He wants me to become.