The Lovely Clay

Since I love a good analogy, this morning was a perfect morning for me. I got to see a video called "The Potter's Hands." I think that's what it's called anyway.
A woman named Grace (gotta love that) sits and "throws a pot" while talking about the ways that she is portraying what God does for us. To put it simply, it's beautiful. I've always somewhat understood why God called himself the potter and we the clay, but this opened my eyes to brand new levels. Of God's love. I had never really thought long and hard about the love part of God's pottery analogy. I've got more of a tendency to focus on my imperfections and thought solely about this analogy driving home the point that God has to keep molding me and molding me and molding me because I mess up so much. And I think that's true too. But His point very well may have been more about the love a potter has for his creation.
Grace (the potter) wants to cherish and hold and love each thing she has poured herself into. Because each one is uniquely made with her hand-prints all over it and she considers them "exquisite." Each creation is the only one that can do it's job in it's own unique way, even if the potter has to start over a number of times because the clay is being so unworkable. Each new creation is carefully and diligently handled, respected and admired, and brings the potter such joy and pride.
And then there's all that stuff about molding and forming and stretching... this is a never-ending analogy. I just had to focus today on the love part. Because the entire analogy comes back to that. Our lives, our faith, our impression on the world, that all starts with understanding fully the depths and heights of God's love for us. It starts with finally setting aside our thoughts of worthlessness, our fears and our unbelief. They are like the little pebbles inside a pot that make it crack when it's under fire. They need to be removed for the vessel to be strengthened and entrusted to live out it's purpose. Lately God has been trying really hard to get me to see His love for me. I'm slow to learn to say the least. But I'm starting to grasp just a glimpse of how accepting this love might do wonders in a million ways. So I'm trying. I suppose he'll have to mash me down about a hundred more times before I look as I was made to look, I just keep getting in the way of the project. But for today, I'm thankful for another lesson driven to the heart of me by analogy.