CLAY HEAVEN

To give them beauty for ashes --Isaiah 61:3

Today I received an email from a friend asking me about a sculpture that I mentioned in an August 4, 2015 post. I described it as a woman peeking through the crack of an open door. Sadly, it has gone to “clay heaven” and I don’t even have a photo of the piece. I wasn’t happy with the way it turned out so I opted not to fire it. "Looking through the crack of an open door" would have been good subject matter for entering the New Year! Inspired by my friend’s encouragement, I may consider resurrecting it in “a new body.”

A week ago, another piece also went to clay heaven. It was a dancer with uplifted arms to God. I had called it “Praise.” As you may have read in my Slova newsletter this week, I moved to a new apartment on Christmas Eve. In the process, I hand-carried several fragile items by foot to my new abode. Unfortunately, I hit the piece going through a doorway and the dancer’s arm broke into a dozen pieces. I was disappointed but not heart-broken. It was one of my earliest pieces and not my best work. See the photo above.

So…what have I learned from the demise of my two sculptures?

• Don’t be too hasty to discard the efforts of the past season; they may still have lessons to teach you.
• Sometimes our visions die because they need to be discarded to make way for a heavenly vision.

Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest— your best for His glory…Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective.*

• Lastly, structures around me, maybe even supporting me, might break, but they don’t have to break me.

May 2016 be a year in which you see the ashes of the past season transformed into God’s more perfect vision for your life.  

*Oswald Chambers, Utmost for His Highest, September 15, 2008.