Every single thing we experience is going to shape us in some way. What I mean by this is that the circumstances in our life will mold us into the people we are today.
Think about a pile of clay. When we were born, we were raw clay, untouched by anyone. Then life came and the next thing we know we are placed on the potter’s wheel. We are turning and turning, watching the world unfold around us. Nothing has happened to us yet because for the moment, we are safe on the potter’s wheel. Then out of nowhere these hands come down and start squeezing us. They start pushing and pulling. They scrape off pieces of us. They pull us up and push us down. The thing about the world is that it is going to influence us no matter what. We are going to have pieces of ourselves pushed and pulled until we transform.
So no matter what, we are going to be transformed. But if we continue to let the world guide us, we are going to come out worse than we came in. However, if we let God transform us, we will come out authentically ourselves. We will be imperfect pieces, but we will be complete.
Most of us live our lives on the potters wheel waiting for that missing piece. We wonder why we have a hole when the potter is done forming us. God is that missing piece. The Holy Spirit is the only thing that can complete us. We can try to find or even make our own piece, but nothing is going to fit right.
So we have the choice to let God transform us or for the world to transform us. If God is the potter and the potters wheel is the world, wouldn’t we want the creator (God) to transform us rather than the potters wheel (which is creation)?
So experiences shape us, but we can learn from them. We can choose to resist transformation or we can lean into the hands of our wonderful creator. So this week, are you going to choose to let the potters wheel do the sculpting or the potter?
EMILY DICKINSON 