Pastor's Blog

Lessons from the Wheel (Cont.)

“Hey guys I’ve got the kiln to temp, who wants to come and see it”. This is how the next portion of the pottery class started. The kiln is a fascinating experience to see and consider. For you pottery aficionados, the kiln under discussion is fired to a “cone 10”. (This denotes a certain temp and offers perspective into how the ceramics will turn out.) Our professor spoke with an evident excitement about the process from start up, gassing off, setting the baffles which pushes the heat down into the bottom, and the excitement of opening a cool kiln to see what happened in the intense heat of the firing process.

Some of the pieces Lauren and I have been woking on were placed into that oven and we got them back last week. The surprises were several. I was amazed at how the heat of the fire clarified and set the glaze. The intense heat and duration had also filled in some minor imperfections and offered a beautiful result. What had been a defect became a beauty spot. The biggest surprise was that one of my pieces took on some unique blistering. We jokingly call this piece Shrek. As I look at the work we did, I find myself in awe at the beauty revealed through the duration of cone 10 heat.

There are times of life that “heat” becomes a purifier. Although I don’t know the heat of Nebuchadnezzars furnace, the account of three young Hebrew men walking into the kiln shows a purifying that served them well. Daniel 3:17-18 shows the young men with a conviction of life that most of us can only admire. The king didn’t take their defiance well and has them put into the kiln. Shortly thereafter, A fourth man is spotted in the fire with them. Imagine the reaction as those young men walked out without even the smell of smoke on them. We could safely guess that future difficulties were met with a poise that only the kiln could bring out. Commit today to remain steady during the times that life seems to put you through the kiln. It just might be that the our defects become the thing that reveals God’s beauty in you, and you’ll never regret that.

Pastor Dave

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