Clay Pots

Elizabeth Elliot Daily Devotional

The jungle indians of Ecuador make clay pots of
very simple design with no ornamentation or
glaze. They challenged me to try shaping them as
they did, rolling "snakes" of wet clay and then
coiling them round and round until they had a
perfectly smooth and balanced vessel. It looked
rather easy, but I found that it was a highly
developed skill, and my attempts to imitate it
were laughable. Mine was not a master hand.

The next step was to build a very hot fire of
thorns and brushwood and bake the pot. It was
then ready for use, to carry water from the river
or to cook in. Nobody thought much about the pot
itself once it was made. What mattered was what
was in it.

We are, Paul said, clay pots. The Potter has
formed us, shaped us into a useful vessel, put us
through the fire of testing that we might be fit
to hold what He gives us. We are useful and
fit--but we are still clay pots--it's what's
inside that matters. It is a priceless treasure
(2 Cor 4:7 NEB).

I can think of no clearer analogy of our place in
God's service and a no more accurate picture of
the relative merits of who we are and what we
have to offer. We shall always be just pots,
quite cheap on the market, but what we carry for
others is priceless.

Love, Paul said in another passage, does not
"cherish inflated ideas of its own importance" (l
Cor 13:4 JBP).