Clay

Today's church service was very educational, worshipful, and for me one special part of it was very profound.

The music and worship leaders lead us through praise and prayers. The mothers of the congregation were all recognized and given roses and applause as they stood before us all. It was rather a tearful moment to see all of those mothers up there too!

We watched a humorous clip on the big screen about a mother who started charging for her services. I laughed! "Hi boys, we have a special today .50 cents for every mile for the first 5 and then .35 cents for each mile after that! Where to?" as the "mom taxi" car drove off with her son's friend standing on the side of the road with empty pockets. The mother started charging her kid to get his underwear from the laundry and for each slice of birthday cake. It was a laugh riot! Mom's are just something beyond value!

Now, while all this was going on during the first half of service today, on the stage toward the back and a little to the right was a woman. She was seated on a stool, bent over a table with her hands busy. She would dip them in water and it was difficult to see what she was doing. I saw that her table and her stool were sitting on a large, plastic covering, as if to protect the floor. Then I saw she was working in clay. I saw it spinning and she was working it into a shape.

Keep in mind that the service continued going on without taking notice of this woman on stage working in clay, worshiping with her art. She was in the "background". She kept working the clay.

The message today was about service in the church. It was about knowing our "shape" as Rick Warren talks about in The Purpose Driven Life, and about finding one's place in the church body, exactly where to serve.

Eventually the woman finished her creation, stood up, without any notice really, and placed it on the table that was set more towards the front of the stage and in the light a bit more. The vase remained there in its fresh form for the duration of the service.

This was so profound to me because on a talk about service, this woman was off in the background of everything going on around her. She was not pointed out as an artist, or worshiper, or anything at all. It illustrated to me what a person with a servant's heart should be, they should be unnoticed. Unnoticed by man, but not by God. Servants not only do the big "out front" things...they do the "behind the scenes" things, the "small" stuff, the stuff no one but the true servant thinks to do.

Now, of course, we sang many "potter" and "clay" songs today. We are the clay and God molds us. The art of clay displayed on stage today (oh my, the assonance!) is exactly what the Bible teaches about how God molds us. What really made an impact to me, was when that vase was finally, humbly placed on that table. Not quite finished yet, but there it was in all its shapely beauty. An unfinished vase set to dry, on display. Just like what God does with those of us totally sold-out to Him! He molds us, sets us up on display, stands back and takes note like a proud papa!

So, all throughout the singing, the message, the praying, was a lump of clay, off in the background, being shaped into the "perfection" that the artist envisioned, then once it was completed, it was raised up in its final shape and put on display.

What a statement that whole worship with clay art was to me. That potter led me in worship today!