The Potter

Making things beautiful

A friend of mine was going through a difficult circumstance: a betrayal, a shattering of the security she’d built her life upon. Perhaps you’ve been there yourself? Maybe you have experienced abandonment or divorce, the loss of a loved one, an affair, or deception?

When I was praying for my friend and what she was going through, I had the image of a potter, a potter not just forming and shaping the clay but tearing pieces off of it, pieces that were a little too hard or a little too dry. Sometimes, the clay needed breaking, squishing back into a ball and forming again. Always, the potter kept working until, eventually, he created something far more beautiful than it had been before.

Later, as I was driving back from dropping my kids at their music practice, still praying for my friend and thinking about the potter, this chorus came to me – in full verse and tune:

As the Potter gently shapes the clay,

He’ll make a way to turn it all beautiful

And though it might feel like you’re being torn

You’re not alone. You’re being re-born.

I got home and recorded a voice memo of it straight away, scribbling it down in my journal. Then the verses came after that. I wrote them as a song to my friend, an encouragement to keep going even when it feels like you’re being torn.

As the Potter gently shapes the clay

What gave me confidence that this wasn’t some airy-fairy idea?

Firstly, scripture. In the Bible, the Lord God is described as a potter, and we are designated as the work of his hand:

“But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
Isaiah 64:8

Secondly, the fact that I’d lived it. I had been through a very similar circumstance to my friend a few years previously, and during it, I had felt like I was being torn apart. Like my world was shattered, and pieces of my heart were being ripped off and thrown to the dogs.

He’ll make a way to turn it all beautiful

However, the profound impression I get when I reflect on that experience is that God did something incredible in my life during that time. To extend (and possibly muddy) the metaphor, my heart was a previously soft ball of clay that was left out for too long, crusted over with dried-out bits. It was pretty hard. And the only way of reaching the soft bit in the centre, the bit that was able to be moulded, was to rip the dry crusty bits away.

And though it might feel like you’re being torn

You may have known the verse about the potter, or at least been familiar with the concept if you’ve heard songs such as Hillsong’s ‘The Potter’s Hand’. But, did you know that the Lord is also described as tearing us? I didn’t until I caught this verse in my Bible reading a long time later:

Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
Hosea 6:1

Wow! I was amazed that words I had no idea came from the Bible were given to me that night in the car.

Looking back, I am grateful for what happened to me. I was a victim, and I don’t want you to misunderstand me – I would never suggest that the betrayed is guilty of sin in the same manner the betrayer is. Or that your heart was like mine. We are all different.

However, I can see now how much of my life was previously dried out and hard to the Lord’s work, how much of it needed ripping away, and I honestly cannot think of a better way that my Father God could have gotten through to me than the circumstance that he allowed.

For he has torn us, that he may heal us.

Clay being torn by the potter — *Photo by Monstera*

Did you notice why Israel was being torn, according to Hosea? For he has torn us, that he may heal us. The tearing was necessary for the healing.

Sometimes it is necessary for us not just to be put under pressure, not just to be crushed, but also to be torn in order for God to reform us into something so much more beautiful than we were before.

So, without claiming that my friend needed the same things ripped away as I did or was guilty of the same sins I was, I can acknowledge that whatever your circumstance, whatever happens to you, it is worth trusting in your Heavenly Father.

He is the Master Potter, and he knows what you need. Sometimes that will mean you get torn. Sometimes it won’t. But if you trust in him, you can be sure that what he is creating will be something more beautiful.

For we are his artistry, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10

The next verse in Hosea says this:

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day, he will raise us up, so that we may live before him.
Hosea 6:2

Wow again. Isn’t that such a beautiful picture of the resurrection of Jesus (and ours if we are trusting in him)?

You might not be able to look back and see God’s work in your heart; it might not be too obvious what his purpose was in the circumstances he gave you. But you can be sure of this – God is preparing you for something better. He is preparing you for Paradise, where you will live before him, in his presence.

You’re not alone. You’re being reborn.

[Aka: The Theology bit]

Some might question my use of the term reborn at the end of the chorus. Isn’t being born again something that happens before you come to faith?

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3

Well, yes, the theological term regeneration is what Jesus is talking about here; it’s the work that God (the Holy Spirit) does in your life before you become a believer, the thing that touches your dead heart and gives it the capacity for new life.

However, I know that God didn’t finish with me there. And the process of sanctification, which is the way God changes you after you have been saved, feels an awful lot like rebirth an awful lot of the time. So many times since I was saved, I’ve gone ‘Huh! Now I get it!’ There are so many facets to God’s incredible truth that we are learning all the time, and that process never stops as long as we are on this earth. And often, the way that we understand the truth is through hardship.

So, the reborn I’m talking about here isn’t strictly speaking regeneration, but it is a process, a lifelong process of growing up into the likeness of Jesus. It will contain times of steady growth and sudden growth spurts. Times of joy and times of pain.

I hope that this song helps you in the moments when you feel torn.

Watch on Youtube here.

Download Lyrics on my Songs page here.

The Potter – Making things beautiful