Becoming in the Potter’s Hands

Becoming in the Potter’s Hands

Painting by: Vashti Graham

3d sculpted cylinder by: Lauren Lewis

Artist Description:

We are imperfect clay, but we remain in the hands of a perfect Potter.

I am not perfect, but I serve a perfect God.

This painting was inspired by Jeremiah 18:1-6, when God tells the prophet Jeremiah to go to a potter’s house. Jeremiah watches as the potter works at his wheel, shaping a vessel from clay. But the vessel becomes spoiled in the potter’s hands. Instead of immediately throwing the clay away, the potter continues working with it, reshaping the same clay into another vessel as he sees fit. God then tells Jeremiah, “Like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.”

That image has always felt incredibly powerful to me because the damaged clay was still in the potter’s hands. Its imperfection did not place it beyond his reach. The potter saw possibility where someone else might have only seen something ruined. In its original biblical context, God was speaking about His authority over Israel and Judah and calling His people to turn back to Him. Yet the imagery also gives us a powerful reminder of our dependence upon God: being reshaped is not the same thing as being discarded. The Christian life is not about pretending we have everything together. It is about recognizing that we don’t and surrendering ourselves to the One who does. Like clay on a potter’s wheel, we are continually being shaped. God can use our victories, failures, struggles, disappointments, and seasons of waiting to mold our character and strengthen our faith. Sometimes His hands apply pressure, but pressure in the hands of a skilled Potter can have a purpose. The Potter sees what the clay cannot yet see: what it is becoming.

In everyday life, it is easy to compare ourselves to other people. We see someone else’s accomplishments, appearance, family, relationships, faith, or talents and assume they have everything together while focusing on every flaw in ourselves. But comparison distracts us from the individual work God is doing in our own lives. Every piece of pottery is shaped differently because each one has a different purpose. We do not have to look like someone else to be valuable in God’s hands.

The molding process is not always comfortable. God may use disappointment to redirect us, waiting to develop patience, correction to produce wisdom, or hardship to strengthen our faith. His hands may be removing pride, unhealthy habits, bitterness, fear, or our dependence on other people’s approval. What feels like disruption may actually become part of our transformation.

The wheel in this painting represents the circumstances of life (constantly moving and sometimes seeming completely out of our control) while the Potter’s hands remain steady. God does not become confused or overwhelmed by what overwhelms us. Sometimes, like Jeremiah watching the clay spinning on the wheel, we cannot understand what the Potter is creating while the process is still happening. This vessel is intentionally unfinished and without color because our stories are still being written. We are not defined by the hardest chapter of our lives. We are still growing, healing, learning, and becoming. A painful season may change us, but change does not always mean destruction. Sometimes what feels like breaking becomes part of the reshaping.

Clay must also remain centered on the wheel. When clay becomes off center, it begins to wobble and loses its intended form. Our lives can feel the same way when we place work, relationships, success, popularity, possessions, or our own plans at the center. These things may be meaningful, but they were never meant to take God’s place. Staying centered on Him requires everyday choices, praying when we feel anxious, seeking Scripture before reacting, choosing forgiveness over resentment, admitting when we are wrong, and obeying God even when another path seems easier.

Serving a perfect God does not mean pretending to be perfect. It means admitting when we are wrong, apologizing when we hurt someone, asking for help when we struggle, accepting correction, and receiving God’s forgiveness when shame tells us to hide. Grace is not permission to remain unchanged; grace allows us to return to the Potter and surrender ourselves to His continued work.

Jeremiah saw a vessel that had become spoiled, but he also saw a potter who was not finished working.

I am not perfect, but I serve a perfect God. I am still learning, still growing, and still being molded. I do not have to be ashamed of being unfinished because the Potter has not removed His hands from my life. My confidence is not found in my ability to create a flawless life, it is found in the perfect God who is faithfully shaping mine.

Scripture References:

Isaiah 64:8 “We are the clay, and You are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand.”(God is our Creator, and we can trust His hands even while we are still being shaped.)

John 13:7 Jesus replied “ You don’t understand what I’m doing now, but someday you will”

Jeremiah 18:1-6 “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” ³ So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.⁴ 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.⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me. ⁶ He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.

Jeremiah 19:1 “This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests”

Philippians 1:6  “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (God does not abandon what He starts. We may be unfinished, but He is still working.)

Ephesians 2:10  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”(We are intentionally formed by God and created for a meaningful purpose.)

Romans 5:3-4  “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” (God can use pressure and difficulty to develop strength, character, and faith.)

  James 1:2–4  “The testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”(Difficult seasons can mature us and shape us into stronger followers of Christ.)

Proverbs 3:5–6  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (We can trust the Potter even when we cannot yet understand what He is creating.)

Psalm 139:23–24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart… and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Growth begins when we invite God to reveal what still needs to be reshaped.)

Additional Facts You May Find Interesting:

God directly calls Himself the Potter. Isaiah 64:8 says, “We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”  Paul also uses the Potter and clay image. Romans 9:20-21 describes a potter having authority over the clay, emphasizing God's sovereignty as Creator.

The clay stayed in the potter's hands while it was being remade. The vessel was imperfect, but it never stopped being held by the potter. Clay really can be reshaped when a vessel goes wrong. Before firing, a potter can collapse, rework, and reshape sufficiently workable clay. This matches the real pottery process Jeremiah observed in Jeremiah 18:3-4 (the vessel was spoiled in the potter's hand, so he formed it into another vessel).

The Bible says God formed the first human from the dust of the ground. Genesis 2:7 describes God forming Adam from the earth and breathing life into him.  Humans and clay share many common elements. The human body contains oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, and smaller amounts of elements such as silicon, aluminum, iron, sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Genesis 2:7 is interesting alongside the fact that our bodies are composed of elements found in the earth. There is a real chemical similarity.

Pottery was an ordinary part of life in biblical Israel. Archaeologists recover enormous quantities of pottery from ancient Near Eastern sites. Because pottery styles and manufacturing techniques changed over time, archaeologists even use ceramic fragments to help date archaeological layers and sites. That supports the historical realism behind the Bible's frequent references to potters, vessels, jars, and broken pottery. (The term ancient Near East refers to the eastern Mediterranean and surrounding regions, including ancient Israel and Judah, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, and Persia. These areas match roughly to parts of modern day Israel and the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Egypt.)

Ancient pottery wheels existed before Jeremiah. Potter’s wheels were used in the ancient Near East thousands of years before Jeremiah lived. Because pottery wheels were already well established in this region, Jeremiah’s description of visiting a potter and watching him work at his wheel were accurate.

The Bible's distinction between workable clay and a broken fired vessel is accurate to pottery. Wet/unfired clay can often be reworked; a fired ceramic vessel that has shattered cannot simply be kneaded back together and thrown again. Biblical writers use both images differently. Jeremiah 18 describes clay being reshaped while still in the potter's hands, while Jeremiah 19 uses a fired pottery jar being smashed as an image of irreversible judgment.

Clay must be centered before it can be shaped well. On a spinning wheel, off center clay wobbles and produces uneven walls. Spiritually, this can represent the importance of keeping God at the center of our lives. A potter also uses steady pressure. Clay is shaped through pressure applied from both inside and outside. Pressure is not always destructive; when it is guided by skilled hands, it creates form and strength.