Yes, but does it pour?

...thoughts on (pottery) wheels and (kiln) fire

I had the distinct honor of studying the art and craft of pottery for a college semester from an instructor who lived and breathed clay, experimenting with fire and ‘salt’ and glazes and pigments and function, form and beauty (her work can be found here http://www.juliagalloway.com/).  I think back to that class often, sometimes because pieces I created and fired in that class, painstakingly checking on the kilns and cones during my shifts, are still around me, and that was such a bright grace-filled time in my life [even though at the time I wasn’t walking with Jesus I can see common grace upon reflection]…

And then there’s the beautiful pitcher she gave me (a perfectly wheel-thrown and altered piece, cast-off because the glaze or kiln had misbehaved during firing) with the commandment – you must USE it.    Due to a couple of relocations, spring-cleanings and other rearrangements, I haven’t seen the pitcher in a year though I sometimes go searching for it .   I miss it for a couple of reasons, though… One is the object and life lesson and two is  that water tastes so good out of it, cooler even when it has sat at “room temperature” for a time (or so it seems).  Something about clay does that… Then, I think of the effectiveness of the clay filter for my water in Southeast Asia…how simply allowing it to drip slowly through half an inch or so of clay was enough to remove harmful impurities… Clay is just simply really cool [pun half-intended].  

Anyhow… one of the quotes that has stuck with me, sometimes echoing in my mind from that pottery class is, “Does it pour?”.    Because the thing is, you can have the most amazingly beautiful piece of clay and call it a pitcher, but if it doesn’t fulfill its purpose as a pitcher, what can be made of it?  It may still be a vessel of sorts, but that vessel isn’t fulfilled or very useful and its glory is eclipsed…it will simply just sit there while its contents stagnate.

Clay is really pretty much just dirt…but when you subject it to a crafter’s hands and then to extreme heat, it becomes something so much more…

…“For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.  For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. “ 2Cor4