Little Clay Pots

A wallet…

A pill bottle…

A vase…

A plastic bottle…

A tin can…

A teapot…

A coffee cup…

A jump drive…

A CD…

An envelope…

A house…

A light bulb…

A size 10, 30-year-old woman’s body with brown hair and hazel eyes, good teeth, and muscles nicely toned…

Quick!  What do all of these things have in common?

All are CONTAINERS.  They collect and dispense.  They guard and display and advertise.  Some are mass-produced in quantity; some are individually and personally crafted.  Some are more disposable than others.  None are permanent.  We can refill, repair, recycle, renew or ultimately destroy, but they will all, in the final analysis, eventually be returned to dust.

What makes each of these items of particular value is that they do what they were designed to do.  The Bible talks a lot about “vessels” and especially earthen vessels—clay pots that have been made out of the most common substance in the world and fashioned into containers to hold things of great value.  

Some of these representations, like the clay pot, God uses in much more complicated pictures.

Look at the rituals God gave to the children of Israel in His plan for the Tabernacle and for the offerings that would be given there.  Everything was designed to be a  picture:

Of man and his sin, needing redemption;

Of the law which must be taught to remind the people that they could never meet its                 terms;

        Of the various offerings which were to be a picture of the coming Messiah who would                 give His life as ransom for all mankind.

In Leviticus 6 there are instructions about how the sin offering (representing the coming death of Christ) was to be prepared.  Verses 26-28 say this:  “The priest who offers the sacrifice may eat his portion in a sacred place within the courtyard of the Tabernacle. . . .If a clay pot is used to boil the sacrificial meat, it must be broken.”  And so we are to be reminded that the great, the real Sacrifice for sin would come in a human vessel of clay that would be broken.

(By the way, isn’t it interesting that the sin offering was to be eaten?  Can you see how the Communion Service—the Lord’s Table as we call it—involves eating the bread and the wine?  The sin offering is only valuable as it is voluntarily taken and recognized as a picture of Christ’s death.)

Aren’t you glad we no longer have to go through those rituals?  But think about the fact that a clay pot, which had once been used to hold that holy offering, could never again be used for anything else, lest the sacredness of that service be minimized!

Now think of that little clay pot in connection with II Corinthians 4:7:  “But this precious treasure—this light and power that now shine within us—is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies.  So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.”

What makes a vessel valuable is that it is made by the Master Craftsman—each by an original, one-of-a-kind design and for a particular purpose.  We are those clay pots. Ephesians 2:10 says:  “For we are God’s masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”

We are different in appearance, in age, in composition, but all are designed by Him.  All have a place of usefulness.  Whatever we are like, He has designed us for a purpose.  All have been designed to do God’s Work.  We are His little clay pots, formed by His hands, according to His design and plan.  

                                                                                    ~~Jessie Sandberg and Faith Lamb