If the Bread and the Clay could talk. I am still in the hand of the Potter!
Years ago, after listening to my PoP talk about the five loaves of bread that Jesus broke and blessed to feed the multitude, I wrote a piece that I never published titled "If the Bread Could Talk." Bread talking was actually personification, where I imagined what the bread would say if it had the sonic agency to speak about its experience. If it could talk, PoP asks us to imagine what the bread would say about brokenness and pain. Suppose the bread narrated its journey from when it was flour to being heated in the oven until it became bread. What would it say? I imagine that the bread narrative may be interesting, but what could pain bread the most may be that despite all its experiences in the baker's hand, even the maker would still break it. I imagine it would say, "I can understand my experience in the hands of everyone but you too, God? Through the lens of the bread, I imagine what it would feel like to be broken by the hands of the very one who will later bless you. When my sister-mum passed, I said, "God and you watch this happen?" I felt betrayed by God.
Along those lines, Jeremiah records a potter making something on the wheel, and what it was making became marred in the hand of the Potter. (Jeremiah 18 vs 4) I often ponder why something God was making became damaged in his hand. Some theologians suggest that this was a mirror of Genesis Adam losing its way right in the hand /oversight of the maker. I think about the clay in the hand of the Potter and what it feels like to be on the Potter's wheel. The fear, anxiety, and the spinning. Personally, I recall what it was like for me two weeks ago, but God, PoP, and someone who guided me through it.
Yet my PoP said regardless of what was happening to the bread, whether it was being broken or blessed, it was still in the hand of Jesus. In like manner, the Potter started molding whatever he was molding on the wheel with clay; whatever happened to the clay in the process of becoming a beautiful vessel or vase, depending on what the Potter was making, is not without the knowledge of the Potter. After all my rumination, it occurred to me that whether the bread was being broken or blessed, it was still in the hands of Jesus.
So, for years, I said to myself whether the going was good or otherwise, I am still in the hand of Jesus. I am still in the hand of the Potter! I never left his hand. I was broken, but I did not leave his hand. I disliked the brokenness, but I am grateful for the blessings. I am thankful he did not leave me broken or damaged but blessed me.
Could you consider for yourself and your family that whether broken or Blessed, you never left his hand? You are still in the hands of the Potter!
This does not only apply to my life, but despite my worries about my country, I still believe we are in the hands of the potter as a nation.
Happy Sunday!
Happy Independence Day, Nigeria!
Posted on Facebook on October 1, 2023
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