Refining Fire

I was thinking recently about ceramic classes that I took years ago.  Some friends and I would meet weekly to spend a few hours creating lovely pieces of ceramic animals, birds, owls, Christmas trees, whimsical carolers, cups and more.  I even made a decorative dish with geese in a circle all around the edge.  Our dear friend, Marilyn, had a kiln and she would pour the clay into the molds and fire items before we came to class.  This first process would produce the “greenware” that was still very soft and fragile.  The second step was to use special tools to scrape and smooth the seams and edges.  Then we would choose and apply the paint or glaze before our pieces would be fired a second time.  I still have several things that I did all those years past.  Most recently this Christmas, I enjoyed displaying several ceramic angels, each about 7” high and holding musical instruments, that I made in 1979, according to my name and date inscribed on the bottom.  Those were fun times that I treasure.

Hundreds of years ago a potter did not have molds in which to pour the clay.  Instead, he would sit at a potter’s wheel and as the wheel would turn, with his hands he would form his object.  It was a tedious and messy job, but once the piece had been fired, it was strong, useful, and beautiful.  In both cases, the firing process was vital in producing something of use and beauty.   Firing the clay at a hot temperature was the most key step!  Without the fire and time in the kiln, nothing would have been of any lasting use.

So, it is with us, in God’s hands.  God molds each of us into loveliness if we allow Him.  God is so skilled that He can take our lives and shape us into something useful, and even amazing.  In Jeremiah 1:5, we read that “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you”. God is the Potter, and we are the clay of His creations made from His mind and heart.  In Isaiah 64:8, “Yet, O Lord, You are our Father.  We are the clay, You are the Potter; we are all the work of Your hand”.  But, just as with clay, the making and shaping of our lives requires that we go through the refining fire of God’s will.  Often it is painful and difficult; sometimes we don’t want to be reshaped and we certainly don’t want the time in the fire.  We often struggle to become what God desires and we fail to trust Him.  Yet, if we will just trust Him with our lives completely, we can become beautiful objects of God’s art.

Lord, I desire to be more like You each day.  Like Job said in chapter 23:10, “But He knows the way I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold”. “Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way. Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.  Mold me and make me, After Thy will.  While I am waiting, yielded and still.”  (From the hymn by Adelaide A Pollard)