Wednesday, March 16, 2022
God’s Intentions for Our Lives
An excerpt from Jeremiah 18:1–11, 18–20 (NRSV)
Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
Reflection from Joyce Newcomb,
The Church of St. Elisabeth:
In Jeremiah 18:1-11 we are told that just as the potter reshapes a flawed vessel into one that is good so can the Lord reshape us. When my youngest son was born with physical abnormalities and intellectual challenges, a physician suggested that Michael and I discard him, send him to an institution to live out his days. We were adamant, flawed or not, he was our son; we would raise him. In those early years, when Charles met developmental milestones slowly or not at all, I saw him first as an enigma. Then, one day when he was four, a year after he had learned to walk, a month after we had moved into our new home and he still was refusing to walk on unfamiliar floors, I was carrying him to his high chair for lunch when a solitary sunbeam broke through the clouds, shining through the window and onto his face. I caught my breath; he was beautiful. In that moment, I realized that Charles was perfect just as he was. I was the one who had been flawed.
Stained glass from the Chapel at the Church of St. Elisabeth
For further study and prayer, the readings assigned for today are:
Psalm 105:1-42; 2 Chronicles 20:1-22; Luke 13:22-31
MUSIC
“Thou Hast Hid Thy Face from Us”
by Eda Ashby,
sung by the StGs quartet
Thou art our Father: we are the clay,
and thou the potter,
and we all are the work of thy hands.