Forty years ago we vacationed in the Smokies spending some time in Maggie Valley, wandering here and there and eventually winding up in the back room of the Pottery Barn, where a potter spun her wheel, both entertaining and enlightening the tourists in her art. We watched as she fashioned a vessel about eight inches high, widening to four or five inches in girth. As the gray, wet slurry washed over her hands and down her fingers she explained that she planned to make an intricate lip that curled outward. As the pot continued to rotate under her hands she began that lip only to have it collapse about a third of the way around. With hardly even a sigh she began again. This time she might have made it an inch farther before it once again fell in a heap, this time taking part of the pot with it. She repaired the pot before beginning on the lip yet again—only to lose it even sooner.
At that point she looked up to us and said, “Well, folks, there is something wrong with this clay so I will have to change my plans and make a plain old straight lip instead of the one I prefer.” Instantly my mind went to Jeremiah 18—finally, I understood it.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: rise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 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 18:1-4
Of course, Jeremiah is speaking of the nation Israel, not individual people, but Paul uses the same imagery in 2 Tim 2:20-22.
Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:20-22.
Here is the gist of it—God will use us one way or the other. Yes, we have a choice how He uses us, whether we choose to be malleable clay or marred clay, vessels of honor or vessels of dishonor. But we will be used, period.
I imagine you have some pottery in your home, or have at least seen some. I have a beautiful vase given to me by one of my former piano students. I will always keep that vase in a place of honor—a shelf where everyone can see and admire it. It is a vessel of honor.
My grandmother had some beautiful pottery as well. But she had one piece of pottery she kept under the bed. If you’re over 60, you know where this is going. For the rest of you, remember, back in my grandmother’s day no one had running water in the house. Keith didn’t even have running water until he was 15. That pottery under the bed was a necessary item—a chamber pot. Especially where Keith lived—way up in the Ozarks, next door to Jed Clampett. In the winter no one wanted to traipse outside in the middle of the night in the snow to the outhouse. But no matter how useful—how necessary—that thing was, no one would have considered it a vessel of honor!
So the question this morning is NOT will God use you, but how will He use you? That’s the only thing you have a choice about. Will you be a beautiful vase or a chamber pot?
The Lord has made everything for His purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble, Proverbs 16:4.
Dene Ward
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