When was the last time you made something out of clay? Clay is normally used in arts and crafts and it often takes some steps to get it just right. You make it soft in your hands, then you knead it into the mold, then you bake it for a while then you take it out and you have the mold of the product you made with the clay.

We are the clay and God is the potter, he made us in his image, shapes us through the various phases of our lives to be more like him, and sometimes we feel the heat when life throws the curves. Sometimes children will use the clay to make bowls, and other objects in art class and other times the clay can be used in construction for various projects.

We are the clay and are part of a piece made by the ultimate creator who is not done working with his molds for everyday that we have God in our lives he continues to adjust the clay through the stages of adversity and to help shape more into his image.

In the clay the pieces are molded together and baked together, though it may not always be comfortable.

It is critical to make it just like the mold that the creator has in mind and throughout our Christian lives we may find that God is not finished with us yet. A work in progress is the best way to describe being in the clay and getting formed in the image of God the Father. A work in progress shows the different phases that it takes and each person is different' and what may be used to help one individual may not be used to help the other person in the same way, however together it will all come together.

Amen.

Job 10:9 (TNIV) Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?

Job 33: 6 (TNIV) I am the same as you in God's sight; I too am a piece of clay.

Isaiah 41: 25 (TNIV) "I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes- one from the rising sun who call on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay.