Clay

I am always impressed by the writings of a second century saint named St. Irenaeus.

He was a formative factor in the birth of early writings in Christian theology. It is not those writings that have my attention, it is a simple prayer that he wrote.

It is a prayer born out of his desire to be malleable in the hands of God.

It is not thou that shapest God,

It is God that shapest thee.

If then, thou art the work of God,

Await the hand of the Artist who does

All things in due season.

Offer Him thy heart,Soft and tractable and

keep the form in which the artist has fashioned thee.

Let thy clay be moist lest thou grow hard

And lose the imprint of His fingers.

Moist clay is easily shaped. Dry clay isn't.

Moist clay retains the imprint of the shaper. Dry clay doesn't.

Moist clay is pliable. Dry clay isn't.

"Still, God, you are our Father.We're the clay and you're our potter: All of us are what you made us." Isaiah 64:8

My prayer is the God will rain down his Spirit and moisten the clay of my life so that He can shape me into a container that He can use. I pray that I will remember that he is the shaper and I am the shaped.

Sometimes I think I am the shaper....when I do my clay becomes hard and brittle.

I want to be shaped by the Master Shaper.

How about you?