The Potter

The wheel spins around and the lump of wet clay is wobbly and off center. The potter presses on it - hard - really hard - and forces the clay to become centered so the wobble goes away and it is smooth and still. The clay is satiny in her hands. If she closes her eyes she can feel it spinning, and when it is ready there is no unevenness. It is full of possibilities but totally yielded to the hands that are shaping it. Now it is ready to open to what the potter envisions. It may become purely decorative, or functional, or both, but with its own character and personality. There are areas that will be taken away to define the form, and the clay will discover its shape in the potter's hands. Later the potter will add color and put it through the fire, and the combination of the potter's intent and the intense heat will refine it and make it beautiful.

I discovered pottery several years ago when Computer Guy first went off to college, and The VP (younger son) would be following him in another year. I had been a stay-at-home mom and had been mostly out of the work force for a lot of years. It was time to prepare for a job that would help pay college bills - so I went back to college too! I always meant to get that accounting degree and the time was at hand. Those of you who have been to college know that they want you to have a "rounded" education, so even when you are an accounting major you have to take an art class! I'd heard about the "art appreciation" classes with their slide shows and reports on artists and decided that hand building pottery with clay sounded a lot more interesting!

Boy! Did I get hooked!! I discovered right off though, that hand-building took a lot of time and I was a bit bored with the tedium of it, but I was facinated watching the "wheel-throwing" folks work!! I watched and learned and sort of taught myself to throw during open lab times. I continued with my accounting requirements and graduated "cum laude" (there is something to be said for being in college on purpose!!) then got a good job using my new skills. And continuing the pottery classes became a part of my recreation!!

That was 16 years ago! I took 3 semesters off somewhere around the 5 year mark, then got started again in night classes at a Jr College near where I work. I go 1 or 2 nights a week and I don't think I will ever get tired of the feel of the clay in my hands!

I learned something else in working with the clay that I didn't expect! There is a song that has these lines: "You are the potter, I am the clay, Mold me and make me after Your will, . . while I am waiting yielded and still." Right now the rest escapes me, but those words have become mine! In the past I had no clue what I was really asking God to do to me! Getting a lump of clay from bumpy and unformed to yielded and still takes a great deal of pressure and pushing and molding!! This is not half-hearted prodding or casual suggestions!! By singing that song (with my usual gusto) I was actually giving God whole-hearted permission to really "work me over" according to His will, to make me functional for Him!! That realization has been eye-opening and growth-producing!! When I work that clay to make it usable for my purpose, I am brought face to face with how my Lord is working on me to make me usable for His!!