JER 18:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 "Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
JER 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
The Potter.
The village of Miralay sat high in the Alps - In the Winter - tourists would come to ski and to climb in the high mountains around the village. Others came for their health to enjoy the high mountain air to be restored before plunging back into their busy lives. But the secret to Miralays fame lay elsewhere.
It was to one little shop cum house in the village that many visitors came. Still set in the 19th century people. would push the door which rang the bell that summoned the Potter to the shop - there he would talk to the visitors for hours over this purchase or that before they purchased one item or another made from the famous blue clay for which Miralay was so famous.
Nobody else had been able to tame the curious blue clay that oozed out of a cave at the foot of one of Miralays mountains. Only the Potter and his Father before him had been able to produce the exquisite blue pottery that had made the town so famous.
Courtiers of Kings and emissaries of prime Ministers and presidents as well as the wealthy and the famous all had in their time beaten a path to the potters door.
But it was three winters ago that Miralay had experienced a chain of events that was to affect it for a hundred years
The woman who had alighted from the train that day was immediately recognizable as someone who was of some importance.
Her clothes and bearing and the fact that she was accompanied by a bustling secretary and two obviously military men still recognizable in their plain clothes confirmed it for Amos the Old Station master that this woman indeed was someone of some importance.
The secretary had carried a box and seemed to guard it with great care. The Military men hovered around the package with great concern. A taxi whisked them off to the Potters shop and soon the bell in the shop was summoning the Potter from his work to meet the woman and her party.
The woman had introduced herself as Helga Sloutski the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Barbaria the neighbouring Kingdom to the tiny Kingdom of Blashika in which the people of Miralay lived.
She asked that the Lord Mayor of Miralay be summoned. When the Lord Mayor and his bustling town Clerk arrived the woman stated her mission.
For many years Barbaria had restrained itself from taking over the nation of Blashika because of an agreement made in 1899 at the treaty of Barbaria. However the treaty was for just 100 years and
Barbariaa could quite justly now take over Blashika.
The Potter trembled at the thought, for the harsh policies of the cruel regime in Blashika had reduced that once beautiful place into an arid terrible place.
Helga Sloutski had explained how Barbaria also had a treaty with their larger neighbour Grouski which had sealed the treaty for a hundred years. The treaty had been sealed with two blue vases which the Prime Minister of Grouski had had specially made by the Potters Father. The treaty could be renewed for a further 100 years on the return of the two blue vases. The problem was One of the vases had been broken. The broken pieces, along with the whole vase, were in the parcel which the secretary now unwrapped.
The Potter tenderly took the pieces almost lovingly into his hands.
There on one piece was his Fathers familiar signature but most alarming of all, the clay was of a type from a seem that was no longer used, for it was high in the mountains and difficult to find.
Helga Slousky told the Potter that he had one week in which to restore the vase - if he failed then Blashika would be taken over - if he succeeded it’s one hundred year treaty would be renewed for a further 100 years. .
At that Helga Slousky, her secretary and her two bodyguards left leaving a stunned Lord Mayor, town Clerk and secretary.
Enter the Potter:-
Hello - I’m the Potter. It’s not long ago so I remember all the details - I’d like to tell you myself. (indicates book.) It’s all in here anyway.
The Lord Mayor had telephoned the King that day and of course the King said we must make the pot at once - he was delighted that the treaty would be extended for another 100 years.
Well that is all very well but we needed the blue clay from the top vein - the bottom stuff just wouldn’t do. Too dark you see - the top vein and the top vein are quite different. That of course meant someone would have to go - there had been a landslide in 1958 that had meant the top vein was virtually inaccessible - only mountaineers dared to go anywhere near. An old man like me wouldn’t last a minute up there. in fact - I wouldn’t even get to the bottom of the landslide.
The only chance for Blashika now was for a skilled mountaineer to climb up to the clay.
but it was more difficult than that - when they got there they would have to find the blue clay - not all clay is the same and we didn’t have time to train somebody - in the end there was only one person in all of Blashika who could do both things - climb the mountain and get the clay.
My Son Jaques. Jaques had been climbing and skiing in the mountains for years and when he wasn’t doing that he was here with me. Being a small Kingdom he knew many of the great mountain climbers and there was none better than Prince Olaf - son of the King and heir to the throne.
If anyone could do it these two could Jaques to recognise the clay and Olaf and him to climb together to the terrible place where the clay lay.
I remember the day they set off - it had snowed in the night and the snow capped the peeks and even the face that they would climb was capped in white glistening snow.
They walked through the yellow flowered fields behind our village as if they were wading through a sea - the flowers seemed to part and bow down as if they realised they were in the company of Royalty.
The birds darted ahead of them as if excited by the great adventure that lay ahead of them.
We stood there The King and I and many of the villagers until they disappeared over the top of the hill and then they were gone vanished from our sight.
It wasn’t easy waiting - I have never had a day like it in my life -
We tried to see them on my telescope but clouds came down and there was little chance of seeing them.
But we were confident that if anyone could bring back the clay that would save our Kingdom these two Jaques and Olaf could do it.
About three in the afternoon the clouds cleared and we were able to use our telescope again we could make out the shape of the two men slowly crawling their way up the face - step by step little by little.
Then the clouds descended again and they were gone - vanished from our sight -
the snow drops dropped gently at first then heavier and we realised what trouble the climbers would be in.
As darkness began to fall Jaques staggered into Miralay clutching a bag of clay but Prince Olaf did not come - seemingly he had fell and hurt himself he couldn’t make it on his own so he’d told Jaques to go on.
Jaques could have helped Olaf and left the clay behind but Olaf wouldn’t have it. He knew that Blashika couldn’t be saved without the clay.
So I made the vase I melted down the clay and following the pattern made from my Fathers broken pieces and using the other vase I made a perfect replica and as a result Blashika was saved.
The Kings son’s life had not been lost in vain he had saved our country from a terrible fate.
My son Jaques does most of the Pottery now - but one day a year - he walks out among the yellow headed flowers to the slip where Prince Olaf fell and there in a beautiful blue vase with yellow flowers in he puts his flowers to remember the day the Prince gave his life that we all might be saved.
John.
An amusing fairy story - a parable - or a flight of fancy?
I want to suggest to you that the story of the Potter has a message for me and for you.
There are three levels at which you can engage this story.
Three levels that have strong parallels with the Kingdom of God.
The first level is the clay - the precious blue clay that was to be so valuable to the King needed to be obtained - the clay is you and the clay is me.
Of all God’s creatures on earth God has chosen people to be his vessels -
In Psalm 139 - we read - When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
The blue clay was treasured above all clays by the Potter.
The scriptures make it clear that you above all creation are greatly valued by God for you were made in His image.
God treasures you and longs to work with you -
In the bible we read Yet, O Lord you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
God has made us and longs to shape our lives into something useful.
Whilst the clay lay up in the higher seem in the story it was of no use to the King - it was only when it was put in the Potters hand that the clay was usefull and so it is with us.
