“For God, who said, “Let brilliant light shine out of darkness,” is the one who has cascaded his light into us – the brilliant dawning light of the glorious knowledge of God as we gaze into the face of Jesus Christ.
We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours” 2Cor 4:6&7 TPT
I want to be a jar of clay where treasure resides within. I’m a jar of clay all right, just like God says, but I’m a broken one. Uneven, rough, unfinished. I’m not shiny, smooth or polished, like I think I am.
What’s this clay stuff then? Nothing more than a sticky, mucky, clump of dirt. That’s me and you? Doesn’t sound so great. But that’s who we are until the Potter (that’s God) sets His hands upon us and breathes His life-breath into us. Like the potter who uses water and delicate hands to shape the clay into something useful and beautiful, so God does the same with us. Clay can’t be a vessel without the water and the moulding and so it is true of us. We can’t carry God’s light without his living water pouring in and his hands shaping our hearts. He knows that our hardened, protective hearts can be reformed and realigned. Malleable and transformable. That’s why he does it! With him, everything is possible (Lu 1:37). If we let him.
And that’s not all! Once the clay and water is formed into a vessel the Potter can use, he sets the jar on fire! He authenticates what he has made. He anoints. He says it is very good (Ge 1:31).
I once was an empty clay jar. There wasn’t much substance inside that hollow vessel. Anything poured in to fill the emptiness soon leaked out through a web on tiny spiderlike cracks. The darkness and the emptiness seemed to prevail.
I strived to fill up my empty jar time and time again. I attempted to fill the cold, dark bottom of my clay jar with numbing things to help me feel good; sugary things that tasted good; false, insincere words that sounded like truth; and liquid things for an unquenchable thirst. All false comforts. In they went. And out they gushed through the cracks.
Yet God. He mysteriously fills empty, dark, uneven, rough, broken vessels with things that remain.
His light and his love permeated to the very bottom of my jar. That’s right! He started at the bottom. Pouring His love into the darkest and most unreachable place. Today, my jar is still being filled – sometimes pour by pour, most often drip by drip.
Now. The power of living water, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God lives in this jagged, unpolished jar. The spider-like cracks now filled with faith, love, peace and hope.
Have you heard of kintsugi?
The Japanese art form wherein broken pieces of pottery are glued back together by a vein of pure gold or silver making it whole again. The Japanese consider the piece of pottery to be stronger and more beautiful than it ever was.
So. The same is true about our hearts filled with the pure gold of His love. We are made strong and more beautiful through the process of allowing God into our hearts.
And God knows this of you! He knows you will be made strong with his love in you. He wants to pour his love and his light into you. There’s a deep mystery in how He does this, but all I can say about it is that He seeks the imperfect, and He seeks the broken.
Do you have a messy smashed heart? Do you want to fill yourself with something to numb your pain? May I suggest you ask our heavenly Father to pour his love into another empty jar of clay? You!
Ask Jesus to fill you with his love. He will. He’s patiently waiting for your invitation.
And let me say this. I’m still weak and messy, at times. But I’m mysteriously made strong – the broken parts of my shattered heart glued with love into a stronger capacity to love and to be loved.
By receiving the love of our Heavenly Father, you will be more beautiful than you have ever been with his treasure residing in you. You – an ordinary jar of clay – made beautiful and strong through Jesus’ life in you. Gluing your heart back together and shining in you.