It is no secret to those who know him that my husband has always had a fascination and love for Asia. Inferences to the “other woman” in my life come to mind. Years ago we started collecting “mud men” figures from wherever we could find them. Mud men are small clay figures that were originally used to decorate bonsai or miniature landscapes. The practice was known as Pen’Jing.
“To capture the realism of a favorite countryside or mountain scenic view, the artists added rocks and planted small trees in a large ceramic tray to simulate the panorama on a smaller scale. These were intended to invoke a harmonious feeling to the viewers.
In an effort to capture the illusion, the Chinese artisans used figurines of people, animals, huts, and temples, which gave an appearance of great age and size to the miniature forests. Figurines have had a place in bonsai as a visual contribution. Pen’Jing, nearly a lost art form, is experiencing a revival in modern-day China and is once again popular with Chinese bonsai enthusiasts.”[i]
As these things happen in my life when God wants to get a point across, my daughter Brenna and I have just returned from visiting the River arts district in Asheville North Carolina. This area is well-known for producing some of the finest artistic pottery and sculpture in the US. My daughter is also an accomplished pottery sculptor herself.
In church, for the past several weeks, the messages have referenced the scripture in 2 Timothy 2:20. “Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
Then just in case I still wasn’t getting the message loud and clear, the speaker yesterday morning told the story of God’s command to Jeremiah to go and observe the potters at work. (Jeremiah 18) It was almost a deja vu experience since we had just returned from watching so many potters at work. How incredible that the process of pot-making has changed so little since the time of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 18:3, “So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.”
The first thing you notice is how messy it is. Mud, buckets, utensils everywhere. Potters may be neat and fastidious, but their medium is not. Next they knead, roll, mash, the clay until it is soft and pliable. Even when it is on the wheel, as Jeremiah’s story states, the sensitive hands of the potter may still find a hard lump, an imperfection that creates a flaw and means the project will have to be started all over again. My daughter tells me that sometimes the clay just will not cooperate. Even finished pots that get broken can be ground back down to make “grog”. Grog can be worked into new posts to make them strong and flexible.
In the very beginning, God, the master potter made a little mud man named Adam.
Genesis 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
Even now, as Solomon said, that is really all we still are. Ecclesiastes 3:20, “All are from the dust, and to dust all return.”
I think God has been trying to tell me that is all that I am, a lump of clay in the hands of the potter. The process of formation is sometimes painful, but the imperfections must be removed. Otherwise, as Jeremiah says, I will end up marred. It is frustrating that God seems to have to remake me over and over, “as it seems good to the potter to do”. That’s the thing that it is hard to remember. God is doing a good thing. Yet how often I become difficult, as Isaiah describes.
Isaiah 45:9 “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, (NIV says, ‘those who quarrel with their Maker’), a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’”
What is God doing? He is making that “vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
That’s the key; I need to remember that at best I am a little mud woman with a treasure inside. The power to be useful, honorable, and above all holy; certainly must come from God.
When I was reading about the Chinese mud men, I found this statement.
“For smaller ones, the artist just picked a small piece of mud and in no time made a figurine out of it by using their two fingers…Then the entire collection was fired in a kiln to cure the clay. Fingerprints can often still be seen, immortalized in the fired clay.”
When I come out of the fire Lord, let the world see Your fingerprints all over me!
[i] “Mystery of the Shekwan Ceramic Mud Woman & Mud Man.” n.d. EdenSong community. 10 November 2015. <http://www.edensong.com/mud_men_figures.htm>.