A Few Thoughts To Introduce Life As A Clay Jar

I am a teacher at heart, not a school teacher, but a Bible Study teacher. I love God’s word and I love discovering God in the ‘everydayness’ of life. I first discovered my love for blogging during our journey to adopt our daughter Abby…

Life is full of teachable moments, but so often I didn’t take the time to capture them, until our adoption. During our time in China, God completely overwhelmed me with the things He taught me about Himself… His love for me, my own ways that keep me from Him, how much His grace cost Him… I could go on and on…and because I was blogging, I was taking the time to grab hold of these profound truths and really ponder them, wrestle with them and then write about them…it was an incredible, life shaping experience.

So as our journey to meet Abby came to an end, I realized that I didn’t want blogging to come to an end…. I loved sharing what God was doing in my life and I could only hope that He might use His work in my life to create a hunger and thirst in another’s life to know Him more…

2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Here’s the thing about clay jars…they all start out as a lump of clay! Their shape and beauty come from the hands of the potter who lovingly shapes and molds them.

The potter has many tools…sponges and chamois cloths that gently smooth the clay…ribs that mold and smooth the jar…needles that pop bubbles and trim uneven lips…bent wires used to cut the clay…and then a sharp wooden tool that cuts and reshapes the bottom of the jar…and the most wonderful thing, during the entire process, the hand of the potter NEVER leaves the clay…

Isaiah 64:8 says, “Yet, O LORD, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.” My Heavenly Father is the one who is molding and shaping my life. He has many tools, some are gentle and refine and smooth out the rough edges…but there are other things that need to be cut away, so He also has tools that are sharper and much harder to bear…but I can be assured, the hand of my Father, never leaves me…I am never alone, no matter what the circumstances look like!

In my life, God has used many ‘clay jars’ to lead me to a deeper relationship with Him…ordinary men and women, whose lives have shown brightly with the glory of God. I can only hope and pray that God might use the words that I share from my heart to create a hunger and thirst in another person to know Him more…

Ultimately, that’s what it is all about…Knowing Jesus and being formed more and more into His image…formed, like clay…

In the beginning, when God created man, He formed him from the dust and breathed His very own life into him…in other words…we’re all just a pile of dirt that God made into something amazing when He created us in His image.

The problem is, man blew it…he wanted to do it his own way, he wanted to be his own god... emphasis on little 'g' god! Fortunately though, God wasn't surprised by man's choice and He had a plan... God gave us His only Son, Jesus, because He loved us so much, and He wanted to redeem the clay and breathe new life into it once again, this time with His Holy Spirit.

More than anything, I want my life to reflect His amazing gift… His life…His power…His faithfulness…His mercy…His grace and most of all, His love… And that’s why I’ve decided to share the story of my life as a clay jar.