A Lump of clay

A Lump of Clay
I have the privilege of working in a job that I absolutely love! Working with children with Special Needs. To be honest, I feel that they have taught me more, then I have tried to teach them. Today I learned a lesson with playing with a lump of clay. A lot of times, while teaching our students, we do a lot of play time, in an effort to prompt communication.
Today, while sitting at the little red table..we got to play with clay. Many the students I work with have little communcation, so it is our responsibility to try to get some sort of verbal response from them. So I had this lump of clay in front of me, divided it among the kids I was working with. I took my clay into my hands, and squished it..and as I was doing it..said "squish, squish." I heard a few giggles, some just watched, and others said, "oooooooh". Then I took my clay and pounded it on the table, and with 1 finger, said, "poke, poke, poke," again trying to get the kids to imitate, me and hopefully get some words. Then I pulled my clay apart, squished it back together again, poked it, pounded it, rolled it, and as I was doing the action, was saying, the words, "Squish, poke, pound, roll, pat, put it back together again."
In reflecting back at this today, it made me think of all the lessons God taught in His Word, on Clay. Us... being the lump of clay, and Him being the Potter. When I think of a lump of clay, before the potter puts it on the potters wheel, that lump of clay has no features to make it look like anything, it is formless, and just as a potter takes a lump of clay and forms something with it, so does God do with us.
At times it feels like, Thump, Slam, Poke, Squish, Pound, Pat, put it back together again, but through that process, He is forming something beautiful in us.
I spoke at a Women’s breakfast last year, and our theme was "Cracked Pots."So when thinking what I was going to talk about, I went out to our garage, found two clay pots. One that was un-marred, no cracks or anything. And... the other one, I decided to break it, and then put it back together again. So I glued all the pieces back together, the best I could. After I was finished, there were many cracks, holes, gaps, very marred up. Then I brought a flash light with me.
While sharing my testimony, and all that I had been through, in my life, and what brought me to Christ, I started sharing my cracks.
An abortion that I had at 19, big crack! How that led me to Christ, and Salvation, Experiencing HIS unconditional love, understanding & acceptance, and His forgiveness. Addiction, another crack..my daughter’s father leaving me, while I was only 3 months pregnant..crack, crack, hole..being a single mom for 6 years..crack...dealing with a prodigal daughter, and watching her go through addiction, and other destructive life choices, slam, thump, broken. Loss of my mom, crack, slam...But through it all, The Lord was with me..comforming me, growing me, stretching me, maturing me, breaking me, drawing me closer to HIM..
In ending my testimony at this breakfast, I had 2 clay pots, the first being un-marred, perfect, no cracks. The 2nd, the one that I broke and glued back together again. I asked 1 of the ladies to turn off the lights, took my flashlight..and shined it through the perfect clay pot, no light shined through, nothing shined through, there was no need for Light. Then I put the light to the cracked pot, and the light came through all the cracks, the in-perfections, the holes, there was a need, and the Light shined through.
Through my sin, my brokenness, my failures, my cracks, that’s when Jesus’s light shined through. A cracked pot, broken, marred, but when I asked Christ into my life, He took the broken pieces, and formed it into something beautiful. A lump of clay, made into a pot, although cracked, and broken..that’s where HIS light shines through.
Jeremiah 18:3-6..Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But 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. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, "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."