Jeremiah 18: 1-6. The potter's hand!

Jeremiah 18: 1-6

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

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God commanded His prophet Jeremiah to observe how the potter worked. Many times for each of us, a visual aid has a greater impact than a verbal or written message. God presents us with parables every day similar to this which can be a conversation, a turn of events, a scene of nature.

Thus we must pay attention to the parables with which God speaks for our life. It is the way God spoke to the biblical prophets. It is the way Jesus taught and how God continues to speak to us in the sacred scriptures.

In the case of Jeremiah the visit to the potter's house, a skilled person, with experience that used for his work a simple instrument with which he molded the clay.

Only clay is an useless material but molded by the potter takes form and then subjected to fire acquires an importance for use in people's daily lives.

So we are like clay that alone we can not do anything significant. But the circumstances of daily life, the twists and turns of life are forming us as people.

The analogy of the potter and the clay is used to express our relationship with God. He is the Master Potter. My life is clay, this portrait speaks of the sovereignty of God over our lives. And the ability of God, to make us, what He wants.

The fact that Jeremiah observed the potter, the wheel, and the clay on the wheel, gives us a vision of what God presented to Jeremiah, and what He is doing in our lives today. The potter was not playing or entertaining himself with clay. He had a preset purpose for this.

And to what the clay turned on the wheel, his plan was carried out through his skillful hands. Likewise, God has an established plan for you and me!

It is for each one of us to enter into God's plan with the reading of the sacred scriptures, the meditation of them and the prayer.