i am the clay

throwing clay and making pottery is deeply satisfying for me...a grownup version of making mudpies, i guess. about 15 years ago, i took a class where i was able to throw as much clay as i wanted. in that one semester, i think i made over 30 pieces of pottery. a few of them turned out pretty good.
i spent hours upon hours at that wheel, fully immersed in the art. i could have been a case study for psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, when he proposed the psychological phenomenon of flow.

while learning to throw clay and make art pieces on the wheel, i was amazed at how many of the techniques and terms had life applications and spiritual analogies. it was so easy to see myself in that hunk of unformed clay and to imagine God shaping me into something He desired. Heaven knoes i needed shaping!
1. one of the first steps in throwing clay is getting all the air bubbles out of the clay. this is accomplished by beating the clay repeatedly and slapping it on a hard surface. if the air bubble remains, it will show up as a major flaw later or even cause the piece to explode while in the extreme high temperatures of the kiln. while i worked the imperfections out of my clay, i couldn't help but think what God had worked out of me...and what He still needed to work out of me. what were those early painful experiences preparing me for? i know now what i didn't know then....reminds me of the line from an emily dickinson poem - "The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind---"
2. while working the clay, it is imperative to keep it soft and pliable. while spinning the clay and molding it, you have to keep adding slip (wet clay) and water.
3. centering the clay is the next step in throwing pottery. if your clay is not centered when you begin to pull up the piece, it will be off balance, and you will fight the clay the whole time. when centering clay it is important to use your whole body.....

it's so easy to get off center...
it's so easy to become hard and unpliable...
it's so easy to hide air bubbles of sin within our vessel...

aren't you glad God is so patient with us?
He sits at the wheel and lovingly forms us into His work of art.