A Lump of Clay ~ Valerie Ronald

                                      

                                     photo credit Pixabay

When a potter creates a vessel out of a lump of wet clay, they are re-enacting an ancient craft traced as far back as 400 BC and beyond. Although there have been some modernizations, today’s potters use the same methods as bygone potters, creating beautiful and useful vessels by shaping the raw clay with their hands while it spins on a rotating wheel.

In the Old Testament, God sent the prophet, Jeremiah, down to the potter’s house, where He had a message for him. “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:3-4 NIV) This analogy of God’s intention to reshape the rebellious nation of Israel like marred clay in a potter’s hands can also be applied as a picture of His transformation of us. God is the Master Recycler.

“Yet You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)

This month’s InScribe Writers Online blog prompt has given rise to many helpful suggestions and tools from our proficient contributors about reusing, rethinking, and recycling our writing. I do not think I can improve on what has already been offered. Rather, I want to go back farther to the birthplace of our inspiration˗˗to those creative sparks flitting around like fireflies before we sleep, or the hastily scribbled plot outline sprouting from a chance encounter.These lumps of wet clay, unformed nuggets of ideas hovering on the edge of our creative consciousness, are given to us by God. His intention is for us to shape, mold, and smooth them into useful vessels on paper, carrying His thoughts in our voice.

The possibilities are infinite, for each of us have unique life reservoirs to draw upon. Several years ago, I thought God was directing me to write a memoir about my former marriage to an abusive narcissist. I had a desire to help other women trapped in such a relationship. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not get past the painful memories so eventually I gave up, thinking I had failed God. Yet from that shelved project came the seeds for other articles, devotionals, and blog posts. My traumatic memories are not wasted, just recycled in shorter formats I can deal with emotionally, and will hopefully be useful to others.

Occasionally I am asked where I get my ideas for what I write. My reply? From everything! My writerly brain is always switched on, gleaning ideas from my environment, experiences, encounters, education, emotional responses, and more. As a writer, I have a way of experiencing life, seeing and mentally recording my observations for future reference.

I keep a supply of small notebooks ready to receive the myriads of writing ideas that flash through my mind but don’t stay there.They are tucked in my purse, bible case, bedside table, car, coat pocket˗˗essentially everywhere. Now I use an app on my cell phone to record ideas as well. I make sure to record the idea with enough detail so that I can flesh it out when I am ready to use it. One night I stumbled out of bed to record a vivid dream, which gave me the plot for a Christmas short story. The dream was so detailed that writing the story seemed more like a transcription.

The idea God gives us is formless until we spin the wheel of our creativity, apply the pressure of our unique skill and perspective, then mold and smooth it until a vessel of words takes shape on the page. Like the potter in Jeremiah 18, if the result is marred, we can start from scratch, then form it into another pot, shaping it as seems best to us.

We have a singular privilege of honouring our Creator with words created by Him, accessible to us so we can express the vast truths of His plans and purposes. None of it is possible without firstly an idea, a spark, an inspiration˗˗a lump of clay. 

Valerie Ronald writes from an old roll top desk in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with her tortoiseshell cat for a muse. A graduate of Langara College School of Journalism, she writes devotionals, fiction and inspirational prose. Her purpose in writing is to encourage others to grow in their spiritual walk.