Wonderfully Made

I went to a conference the Upper Midwest region of The Navigators hosts once every four years for collegiate women. It was a great weekend that lasted a little longer than we planned because of the weather. I enjoyed it though. There's something special about quality time with women. The theme of the weekend was wonderfully made based off of the verse in Psalm 139. The key message for me was that of the potter who shared her story and art. In Jeremiah 18, it talks about how God is the potter of his people, molding and shaping as he sees fit. As someone who has dabbled in art and ceramics before, I gravitated toward this imagery. It tied together extremely well with another study I did while in Argentina taking a ceramics class.
The whole process of drawing the clay out of the dirt, purifying it, handling it, planning the design, forming it, firing it, and painting it is a lovely picture of how God works in our lives when we may not be able to see what He is up to. We simply have to trust in His skillful hands watching over us. Working with clay is all about the balance between dry and wet and waiting for the clay to reach the right consistency and the right application of pressure. There are numerous metaphors in the Bible. It was exciting to watch this one come to life for many of the women there. We literally got to take away a piece of the message as the potter made mugs for each of us (200 women). It is beautiful. I don't think we can ever hear too often that we are wonderfully made. So many people struggle with insecurities; feeling like when God made them He made a mistake.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."