The Patient Potter …
Image from: https://www.poemsbycc.com/ThePotter.html
In one of my previous posts, I referenced a number of interviews I listened to on YouTube. Today’s blog post was inspired by an interview conducted by Dr. Frank Thomas with Rev. Dr. Claudette Anderson Copeland: https://youtu.be/9eQYGSLkEeE.
Have you ever experienced listening to a song for years and knowing you like it, but not feeling anything particularly special in relation to the song? BUT THEN you fall in love and all of a sudden, it feels like you are hearing the words for the first time. The melodies touch you in a new way. The words seem to penetrate your soul now with extra intensity. I liken this analogy to how I feel now hearing gospel songs I grew up listening to … or even sermons I am hearing for the first time. The words have a different meaning; they penetrate my soul in a new way. Songs like “I’m Just a Nobody” [sung] by the Williams Brothers or “Still Holding On” by Luther Barnes or “Standing in the Need of Prayer” by the New Life Community Choir. I grew up listening to these songs, but they have taken new residence in my heart as I grow in faith this season.
In this regard, I am also reminded of the plethora of stories, sermons, songs, and Biblical references to God as the potter. As I reflect on my life, I now connect in a different way to this analogy but add an extension of what I have commonly heard to also affirm God is a patient potter. I could tell many stories about my short life; I can frame my experiences within many references or roads leading to a variety of places. But IF I submit to framing my life, my experiences, my troubles, my struggles, my joys, my accomplishments within Christ, I see God as a patient potter. To think that over the course of 39 years of life, events have occurred in such a way that they add purpose and intent and clarity to my life. Events that happened four or five or six years ago that I thought I’d never revisit again, have new-found significance today. People I met in passing who I haven’t spoken to in forever are now rekindled in my heart as I think of their kindness toward me and love for Christ. What a joy it is to rest in knowing that I have a patient potter who carefully and over the course of hours, days, weeks, month, and years crafts me to be who I am called to be … to live fully in Christ, to serve, to be sold out for God, to say without reservation that I dedicate every single day I have remaining on this Earth to living for God. Thank you God for being a patient potter and never abandoning your work in me!