Clay

When a potter starts a new piece, he starts with a ugly lifeless lump of clay. He than takes this lump and sets it perfectly on his wheel. Next he dabs water on it here and there to make it wet and goopy (he will also put some on his hands) Now with steady crafty hands he spins the wheel and molds the clay till it takes on form and takes on a new shape. Now that clay was just fine the way it was before, it wasn't harming anything it wasn't in anyones way, but the potter saw that it had a potential to be more, to be something beautiful. When we think we have our life just the way we want it and everything is perfectly going our way, God takes it and puts it on his potters wheel, dumps water on it to make it soft and reshapes it to what he wants it to be. We were created with the ability to make choices of our own. We have the ability to look at the clay and decide weather it should be a bowl of a vase. Either way that clay is going to be made into something that someone can use. This is what God does with his children. We come to him a shapeless lump of clay that has no purpose and no place, just to exist. When we are put in the Potter's hands suddenly we start to show purpose, to show life. When we receive Christ as our savior it is like the potter putting the clay on the wheel. As the wheel starts to move water is added. These are the tears that are shed to show the trials and tribulations we encounter. We all know that it is never easy being a child of God while we reside here on Earth. With the tears we are broken down and soften. When we are at our weakest point, face down in the mud and no where else to go, That is when He can really start to shape us into something useful. Every now and than we get dry and we think we are exactly where we need to be, again the Potter will add more water and make the clay more workable. Not every lump of clay is made into the same thing. Some are made into Vases, some bowls, some cups, some are even made into statues. Not every Christian is made into the same thing either. We have our Pastors, our teachers, our singers, and our missionaries. Each one serving there own purpose in the China cabinet that is our Fathers house.