Interesting day today. I spent most of the morning in our Bright Sparks group with pre-school children and their parents / carers. As well as setting out a Wooden Railway (which stayed mostly intact through the session so it must have been a good layout) I spent lots of time playing with play dough (home-made, hence not using the Brand name spelling). It was great fun cutting out shapes, making faces (in the dough, not with my own face), encouraging with what they were making, suggesting what they might do, making teddy bears in response to requests and chatting. I think the children enjoyed themselves too.

One of the great things we discovered time and time again was how if you make a mistake you can either stick things together or just roll the dough up and start again. If only life was that easy. Of course we have a God who offers us fresh starts, but the implications of what we say and do still have to be worked through with others.

In a recent service we sang of how God is the potter and we are the clay, based on this verse:

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)

I’m not sure how I feel about being clay. I think that sometimes I am hard to work with. Other times I am definitely dry. I am not always malleable. But I reckon that if The Potter is at work on me he may well turn me into something useful and functional if I let him.

Be blessed, be a blessing.

Pottery Joke (sort of)

In front of a delicatessen, an antiques dealer noticed a mangy little kitten lapping up milk from a saucer. The saucer, he realized with a start, was a rare and precious piece of Clarice Clift pottery – a one off that was thought to have been lost but was worth a fortune. He walked nonchalantly into the store and offered three pounds for the cat.

“It’s not for sale,” said the shopkeeper.

“Look,” said the dealer, “that cat is dirty and scrawny, it’s not even cute. But I’m a bit of a cat fan. And I’m a bit of a cat-rescuer – I like to buy cats that are like that one and return them to full health. I’ll give you fifteen pounds.”

“It’s a deal,” said the shopkeeper, and pocketed the cash on the spot.

“For that sum I’m sure you won’t mind throwing in the saucer,” said the antiques dealer. “The kitten seems so happy drinking from it.”

“Not a chance,” said the shopkeeper firmly. “That’s my lucky saucer. So far this week I’ve sold 34 cats that have been drinking from it.”