Week One

The Potter’s Hands

The Father’s Goodness

We begin our theme by picturing our Father God as a potter! This is an ancient metaphor inspired by an ancient art form that occurs multiple times in the Bible.

This week we are thinking especially about the goodness of God. We will be reflecting on the thoroughness and sensitivity of God’s hand’s on care.

Seeds to sow: As well as their hands, potters use a number of tools to shape and decorate their pots as they work the clay. One thing they use is a ‘sprig mould’ kind of like a stamp which can be pressed into the clay to create textures and designs. If God had a ‘sprig mould’ in your community, what designs and patterns would he be pressing into the clay?

Read Isaiah 64 (especially focusing on verse 8)

Wedging the clay

We need God and God kneads us! ‘Wedging’ is when potters work the clay to make it workable, consistent, and pliable. A potter doesn’t simply grab a lump of clay and immediately start sculpting — in the same way God doesn’t just grab us and bend us out of shape — God knows us and kneads us, supporting and strengthening us. Let’s use this imagery to think about the sensitivity and goodness of God the Father.

The flash of insight in verse 8 — that we are all the works of God’s hands, bearing the maker’s mark — comes in the midst of this heartfelt plea to God to intervene, to be present! What can we do when we are desperate for our Father God to act or intervene in a situation but he is instead wedging the clay — working in unseen ways to prepare and nurture us?

Read Jeremiah 18: 1-11

Moulding the clay.

Let’s use this pottery analogy to think about the power behind God’s goodness.

The words at the end of this reading seem somewhat drastic at first reading, “Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.”

But are we missing a comic undertone here? God is not a literal potter, and God does not shape evil against us. And while a potter might get frustrated with their clay that doesn’t mean they’re going to take it out on the clay itself, instead they’ll go back to square one and begin moulding the rebellious clay again (see verse 4). Where do you see God working and reworking our potential, as communities, societies and nations?

Read 2 Corinthians 4: 1-15

First firing

When pottery goes into the kiln the questions come — will it hold? Will cracks appear? Clay makes a great metaphor for humanity — delicate and earthy, everyday and beautiful. God the Father loves us, has a purpose for us and can use all the broken pieces of our lives! Cracks are how the light gets in as Leonard Cohen said! Our imperfect clay forms can be beautiful vessels of grace, not in spite of being humble clay jars, but because of it! Kintisugi is the Japanese practice of mending cracks in broken pottery with gold — not erasing the break but healing it and making it beautiful.

Where are we asking for our Father God to work gold Kintisugi in our lives?