The Potter and the Clay

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The Clay

When rocks break down over time, they form a fine-grained material called clay. This natural substance, usually found in riverbanks or floodplains, becomes soft and moldable when wet, and hardens when heated. It must first be cleaned and refined before it can become usable clay — this is achieved by removing any small rocks or lumps in the clay. Sand may be added to increase its strength and durability. The right amount of water is added to achieve a perfect texture; then, it is ready to be molded. 

Centering clay is the essential process of evenly distributing the mound of clay on the pottery wheel in order to create an even, symmetrical piece. Without centering, the uneven thickness and wobbling of the clay can make it impossible to create a well- formed pot. Any uneven clay in this first stage will become amplified as the walls of the pot are pulled thinner, resulting in drying cracks, faults when firing, or flopping over before the piece is even finished. Uncentered clay is very hard to work with, and centering it properly makes later stages much easier.

Clay on a wheel wants to spin outward. The potter must, with firm hands, give it no option but to go where he tells it to go. He braces his elbows on his thighs so that his arms are stabilized and don’t move — if his arms move, the clay moves. To center the clay, the potter guides the clay up into a cone shape, and then forces it back down into a hockey-puck shape. The clay may require this process once, or several times. Once centered, the clay is ready to be molded and shaped into whatever the potter desires. After it is shaped and dried, the clay hardens and permanently remains in form. 

Throwing clay is a difficult skill and modern potters often remark on the wild and sometimes stubborn nature of clay. Jeanette Jennings says, “The funny thing about clay is it kind of has a mind of its own.... You can start out making one thing and sometimes it turns into something completely different.” Jeff Zamek also comments, “Once you’ve learned that clay has a mind of its own, the next step is to convince it to behave.”

Our Potter

Like natural clay, our natural selves must go through a period of refining before we are usable to our potter, the Lord. Imperfections—our sins and self-reliance—must be taken out, like rocks in the clay. Good things—prayer and dependence on God— must be added to increase our spiritual strength, like adding sand to the clay. Hardened clay must have water added to it, as the Word of God must saturate our hardened hearts.

Before we can be formed into a vessel to the Lord, He must center our lives on Him. If we are not wholly centered on Christ, we will wobble, fall, crack, and be unable to become anything. Any weakness in our foundation will sooner or later reveal itself, like the pot that cracks when put through the fire because it was not centered properly. Ensuring our life is centered on God makes doing His will and submitting to Him much easier, as properly centered clay is much easier to work with.

The Lord builds us up and then forces us down. He must humble and teach us that we only go where He leads us to go; in this way, we are centered on Him. Some believers must only learn this lesson once — others may have to endure several “centerings.” Through it, the potter’s hands are stable, unwavering, and firm. Though severe, the potter knows that centering is essential and for the vessel’s good, so that it may become a sturdy, usable pot.

The same hands that push us down are the ones that shape and mold us into a beautiful vessel, able to be filled, emptied, and used however the Lord sees fit. Our outward appearance and inward substance remains permanently changed — our own new shape is a testimony to the Potter’s work in our lives.

Our natural human tendency is to be stubborn and have a “mind of our own.” We may not trust the potter, or think we have a better vision of the vessel we want to become. But if we resist our molding, we will remain unusable clay, fit for the trash. As believers, we don’t have a mind of our own — we have the mind of Christ. We can submit to our Potter’s hands, knowing that though the process may be painful and difficult, and though we may not know what He is shaping us into, He will complete His work in us to make us into useable vessels for His glory.

“But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8