A Moulding Process

Jeremiah 18:1-11
‘There are many unusual and unexplainable things that happen during our lives. Sometimes they are life changing. Jeremiah 18 uses a great image of
the potter and the clay to describe how God doesn’t throw away something that he is working with that fails. No, rather God does not give up but reshapes and reforms into being something completed and whole. And that can indeed take some time and perhaps more than one attempt. Not every piece of clay is fit for the finest china. Some is suitable for cups, some for bowls, some for lilies, some bricks. All are useful for the final purpose intended, whatever that may be. Of course, the clay doesn’t necessarily know its purpose. That is often only revealed in the completion.

When I read the letter of Paul to Philemon, I can see the same kind of thing happening. Onesimus, a pagan slave, has run away from his master Philemon and has somehow come into contact with Paul who is in prison in Rome. Paul’s claim is that he was an instrument of God in Onesimus’
conversion to Christ, and that perhaps was God’s whole purpose. God has moulded Onesimus, changed his inner self to be a brother in Christ. Paul stresses that although Onesimus is to be returned to Philemon still as his slave, he is to be treated as all Christians ought to be, that is in equal fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of one’s station in life. Perhaps there have been changes in your life where you now see things a little differently because of the life changing love of God in Christ. True Christian love is a powerful living thing to be shared.

Pastor Darryl

Photo by Juliet Furst on Unsplash