Words are Marred

I am marred. I am flawed. My body is imperfect and ailing, but it is still useful to the Master who created it. God sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house to receive the Lord’s message. He saw the potter working the wheel, “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” (Jer. 18:4).

I am malleable, pliable. Perhaps I thought I was meant to be a flower pot, but the Lord determined I’d make a better water vessel. “’Can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares the Lord. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand’” (Jer. 18:6). He created me, and He can make of me whatever He wishes. He can build me up and tear me down over and over again until I reach perfection. I am His vision. He knows what He needs me to be. Sometimes I need to be reshaped in order to carry out His plan.

We writers shape words not clay, but sometimes our creations need to be smushed, spun, swirled, and shaped into an entirely new production. Sometimes an article or a chapter that looked like a flower pot might actually work better as a water vessel. Can we not do with our writing as the potter does with the clay?

Sometimes what we write is marred and flawed, but words are malleable and pliable. Don’t be afraid to form your work into a different pot, shaping it as seems best.