It wasn’t quite as formal as Jeremiah’s instruction though. My summons to the pottery studio came through a friend who called to ask if I would take a class in throwing pottery on a wheel with her. I agreed with no serious intention of hearing from God through the experience. Nevertheless, God taught me so much by watching, attempting to throw my own pots, and often failing.
For as many years as I can remember, I have collected random pieces of pottery. I purchased the teapot with a spout the shape of an elephant’s trunk in a rustic factory in Thailand. Each of the hundreds of pieces that lined the shelves was handmade by a Thai potter sitting over a wheel. Next to the teapot sits a pleasingly plump pot with rich colors and a flat round lid, a gift from my big sister, the artist. I stash my not-so-secret supply of dark chocolate in it. The bowl-shaped mug decorated with thick brown swirls and squares fits perfectly into my cupped hands. My daughter bought it for me in an open-air market in Honduras when she was in high school. I taste the sweet pangs of deep love and missing her growing-up years as I sip from it.
Today is the first day of class. I will experience a master potter’s work as she begins to move clay from raw state to masterpiece for the first time.
At the door of the pottery studio, feeling shy and nervous, I am met by the studio atmosphere. The air carries the earthy scent of clay mixed with the aroma of heat from the kiln, and painty smells from the buckets of glazes in rainbows of colors. It looks cluttered with tools and clay and works in process. Wheels hum as they turn. Despite appearances, there is a strict order to everything. It is an atmosphere of hope and possibilities, a room for creation.
The hands of the potter are strong and speckled gray, the color of the clay that dances between them on the wheel. The choreography is perfect. The clay rises off the wheel between her hands. It sinks back down, opens, and takes a shape, rounded and graceful. To my eye, it looks like all the movement is in the clay. The potter seems to be doing nothing but embracing it as it moves itself.
“So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel” (Jer. 18:3).
As I watch, the side of the large vase on the wheel suddenly grows too thin and collapses in on itself. The potter groans, frowns, and leans back a moment to assess the damage. Can it be repaired? Slowly she forms it into a ball, and begins again.
“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 him” (Jer. 18:4).
This is human existence; this is my life: God the Potter, hands speckled with the messiness of working so closely with us, his clay.
Can you imagine what it would have been like to be in Michaelangelo’s head when he first dreamed the David? No doubt his heartbeat quickened as the vague image came into focus in his thoughts. I imagine, he rushed to grab a sketch pencil and paper. The first step in crafting any masterpiece is invisible. Only the artist is aware that anything is happening at all. In his mind he sees a masterpiece. The thing that lives in his imagination will one day stand in a place of honor, a beautiful expression of its maker.
I want to eavesdrop now, to listen to the artist’s thoughts at this first private spark of creativity. Was there a moment when the idea for the universe was born in God? There was no air yet for thunder to rumble through, but I imagine there had to be a cosmic ripple through the dark empty nothingness.
The silence of before time is shattered. God says, “Let us make . . .” It was an idea so magnificent that it excited the Holy Trinity. “Let us make . . .” “Wouldn’t it be great . . .?” “What if we made funny creatures, a giant sloth and a duckbill platypus, and beautiful creatures, how about swans? And majestic creatures, maybe elk! And rugged peaks and roaring surf and burning balls of fire to light the planets and whole galaxies full of wonders.” Then God decides to finish with something unlike anything else created.
“Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, and all the wild animals on the earth and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them . . .” (Gen. 1:26-28a, NLT).
I pause my imaginary playback of this cosmic conversation. I hesitate to even ask the disrespectful question in my mind, but acknowledged or not it is there in my thoughts: is that idea, the made in my image part, a bit arrogant of God?
But it is impossible for God to have an inflated view of God’s self. There is no way that anything could be better than God in any way. No one can even imagine anything better. So, for God to say, “Let us make mankind in our image” isn’t arrogant. It is generous. The best thing God could create is something like God’s self. The best gift God could give is to make little reflections.
“Let us make . . . mankind.”
“Go on.”
“Mankind will be very different from every other life because mankind will be like us.”
“Ah. Like us in what ways?”
“Well to begin, they will be relational. Made from love to love. They will join us, naming, ruling, reigning over the earth and its other creatures . . .”
At this point the sound fades, my eavesdropping ends too soon. I want to know so much more.
I reflect on what I heard. God made mankind to be like God’s self. More mysterious than the gravitational pull of a black hole are the mysterious workings of my eternal soul.
Somewhere deep within I begin to squirm. I like the idea of being beautiful, mysterious, and powerful, but is that what I am? How specifically does the image of God show up in me? Something clearly went awry. Some part of me is uncomfortable with claiming that I am made in God’s image. There is too much in me that seems, well, not God-like. But thinking about what went wrong will come soon enough. And it doesn’t negate that the God who is love, created and loves us.
The first pottery studio was a brand-new universe.
God the Potter spoke matter into existence. At a word, myriads of galaxies, billions of stars lit the darkness. God spoke and life in countless forms flourished where none had been before. He made every living thing according to its own kind.
In my imagination I stand in the shadows and watch as the first hawks soar to breathtaking heights without effort, then dive, nearly colliding with the earth. They pull up again at the last instant. Cheetahs race through the open savannah with power and grace. Orcas breach the surface of their cool ocean home with the jubilance of dancers.
Then, without fanfare, God kneels in the black dirt of this blue planet.
God prepares to begin making the pinnacle of creation. This creation will not be crafted from the spoken word alone. God draws near for this creation. God the Potter scrapes clay from the ground, warms it with touch and molds a masterpiece. Then God breathes God’s very own life into the new human. God divides this one person into two, each one suited for the other. Each one uniquely displays God.
They reflect him in their ability to love. They drink in deep draughts of love from God and from each other and offer it back. They delight in God and in each other. They know God well, walk with God through the evening, listen to that voice that creates reality with words and offer their words back. God even invites them to join in his divine work, ruling over the earth and the myriads of living things on it. The new people delight with the artist in the beauty, intricacy, and whimsy of creation. They feel and desire as he does. God’s viceroys perceive, make rational choices, like God does. They even have the power of words, like the Word himself. They are utterly free with nothing to hide.
But then
Silently, evil slithers into the garden and lodges in a tree. The woman sees him there and they start to talk. The man and woman have everything good, but the evil one plants a subtle doubt. Is it possible that they lack something, that they are missing something better?
Evil temps Eve by promising that she and Adam could be like God knowing good and evil. In the first and worst tragedy of history Eve ignores the crucial fact that she is already like God. Instead of exercising her dominion over the hiss of evil, she entertains it. She plays with the thought that God might be denying them something good. Evil bends her thinking, confuses her into doubt. Man joins her. Man and woman forget who they are. After that it is just one more step in the wrong direction to forget the God who walks with them in the cool of the evening and begin to believe in a god who isn’t completely good. The fear that God is not good enough leads them and all humanity after them astray.
Standing beside the woman, Adam also acts in a way that is not like God. He abdicates his royal role of ruling over the earth and hands it to the jealous evil one. The woman and the man bite, exchanging dominion for the role of slaves to the evil one. The bite turns bitter. Love turns to fear.
Man and woman can’t breathe life into the world like God anymore. Instead, they breathe death. They can’t exercise their God-given dominion over the earth. Satan takes it instead. The battle for dominance begins, as sin distorts the likeness of God in us.
The instant humans cease trusting the Creator, the image of God is disfigured. Humans lose sight of perfect love. Instead of giving in love, they demand perfect love from each other. They hide from God. Their cravings drive them. God moves to the periphery of their vision. They don’t trust. They don’t walk with Him or talk with Him. They focus on self-preservation. Now, instead of every choice coming from love and flowing freely back in love, they find themselves trapped by selfish desires and malformed habits. For the first time they find themselves unable to choose the love and goodness they truly desire. All the generations after them will suffer in this way.
The Potter-God gets muddy again. His masterpiece must be recreated. Only Jesus, the perfect image of the Father could do it. Saint Athanasius said it this way, “The renewal of creation has been wrought by the self-same Word who made it in the beginning. The Word of God came himself, in order that he being the image of the Father, (cf. Col. 1:15), the human being ‘in the image’ might be recreated” (Saint Athanasius, On the Incarnation).
This time kneeling in the dirt is costly. To restore them to their true shape God the Son must lay aside all the privilege of being God, become human and bear our creaturely limits, temptations, and suffering. In the startling choice to join his divine nature to our human nature, he defeats the powers of death, resurrects us to new life, and restores to us his image.
God continues to work at the potter’s wheel reworking the clay to resemble him.
Think of the following practices as invitations. Choose which invitations to accept. Do not feel that you should do every practice. Some will work better for you than others.
Guided Imagination
Isaiah 64:8 (MSG):
“Still, God, you are our Father.
We’re the clay and you’re our potter:
All of us are what you made us.”
Jeremiah 18:1-2:
“God told Jeremiah,
Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.”
Stop everything you are doing. Focus on your desire to seek and find God during this time. Think about God’s promise to Jeremiah, “When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.” Do you long to hear God, as Jeremiah did? Let this prompt a short prayer. “I long to hear what you have to say . . .”
Jeremiah 18.3:
“So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel.”
God is the Potter. Use your imagination to enter the scene and watch the work. The Potter is wearing an apron and leaning over a spinning potter’s wheel. His hands are damp and splattered, cupped around a brownish lump on the wheel. The air smells hot from the kiln and earthy from the clay. Imagine you can see him working at the wheel, shaping a large bowl.
Jeremiah 18.4:
“Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.”
One side of the bowl collapses and the bowl begins to flop around on the wheel. The Potter stops the wheel, lifts the clay and walks with it over to a table. At the table strong hands press and knead the clay until it is an irregular lump again. Now the Potter carries it to the wheel again, throws it firmly back into the center, and sits down.
Jeremiah 18: 5-6:
“Then God’s Message came to me: ‘Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?’ God’s Decree! ‘Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel.’”
God is the potter. You are the clay. Maybe you are off balance, uneven, worn thin, collapsing. Confess your vulnerability and need for the Potter.
Now feel hands wrapped around you. They are firm, strong, and at the same time kind and gentle. They both cradle you and push you toward the center of the spinning wheel.
Relinquish your efforts to make something of yourself. God is the Potter, you are the clay. Rest in his hands. Let him hold you and work. Carry that image with you as you move through the rest of your day. Listen for what God said to you as you observed the Potter’s studio.
Journal
Think through your thoughts and emotions in a notebook or journal. Choose a question or two from the list below to help you get started.
Note: Do this with children if you have any available.
Take a walk in a shopping mall or park where you are likely to find families together. Look for family resemblances. Can you find a daughter whose hairstyle or style of dress resembles her mother’s? Do you see a son who walks the same way his dad walks? Maybe you see a long lean runner who looks a bit like the Great Dane at the other end of the leash she is holding. Be playful.
As you go along, think about how Jesus resembles God the Father and how you increasingly resemble Jesus. Think of specific ways you dream of resembling God. Maybe you want to face difficulties with absolute trust in God’s goodness. Maybe you want to live without doubting God’s hand in your life and love for you. Pray. Acknowledge that God has planted that desire in your heart and is making it a reality.
Note: Enter this time as you would begin exploring an exciting new place. You are not venturing in on your own. Begin with prayer. Ask God the Spirit to help you understand. Adapt the following suggestions to fit you. The study can be done in about one hour or broken up and completed a few minutes at a time over several days.
Touch it
Read Colossians 3:1-17 slowly. Read it a second time in an easy-to-read version like The Message or the New Living Translation. As you read, remember the image of a piece of pottery that was ruined and now is being remade.
Choose the version that was easiest for you to understand. Reread verses 1-4. Mark your place in your Bible and close it. Try to recite all four verses from memory (don’t give up if you can’t remember most of it. Just recall as much as you can).
Look back at the passage. Mentally fill in the parts you forgot, and correct the parts you didn’t get quite right.
Reread verses 5-9. Try to recite them from memory. Look back, fill in, and correct.
Repeat this process for verse 10 and verses 11-17.
Grasp it
Take a couple of verses at a time and try to summarize them. This passage has a lot of ideas packed into a small space. This won’t be easy.
Look up definitions for any words that are tripping you up.
Own it
Read verses 1-4 again.
The NLT says “your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” Think about what the “real world” is and what invitation in these verses feels like it was issued straight to you.
Read verses 5-9.
This is a list of the kinds of attitudes and behaviors that belong to the old self. Is God saying something to you through this list? Maybe imagine taking a shower and having anything that belongs in this list stripped off and washed down the drain.
Read verse 10.
This is the center of the passage. Everything else rotates around this idea. There are three key ideas in this one sentence fragment. Use the pottery imagery to really grasp these ideas.
The ESV Study Bible notes on Colossians 3:9-10 say, “A qualitative change of identity has occurred in the lives of believers. It now only remains for them to bring their behavior in line with their new identity.”
Maybe imagine yourself stepping out of the shower clean. The old no longer matters.
Read verses 11-17.
These verses focus on the new self. What does it look like? Read this list slowly. In what way does this list describe you? Now imagine yourself getting dressed. What has God given you to “put on” from this list today? Pray a prayer of thanks.
Ask God to help you grasp the specific idea He has for you in this passage today. Talk to Him about it. Consider thinking more deeply by writing in your journal.
Journal
Does it impact the way you think about yourself to realize you are already a “new self” created in the likeness of God? Do you see the family resemblance?
Do you struggle with thinking of yourself in terms of “old self” with its sinful deceitful desires, or do you easily identify with your true identity, made in the image and likeness of God?
Can you easily trust that God is always at work making you like him?