The not so great pot

The voice in the potter's workshop was rather quiet but clear and nasty:

"Slender! Do you not know that slenderness and stylishness are in the proportions, width and height? This squat base you have given to me is the opposite of slenderness!"

God noticed that the voice was coming from the midst of the ready vessels He had made. They had already cooled after firing and had been piled on a wooden table.The voice continued the litany of complaints:

"And look at this yellowish matte skin I have? Have you idiot not heard of polished red slip that shines so beautifully on the dinner table of an aristocrat family? Do you not know how to at least to imitate terra sigillata ware which has such a noble metallic ring to it and is beautiful to look at even in the midst of silver and gold?"

The pot was clearly not happy about the way Great Potter had made it.

"This ridiculous bevelled rim - is it supposed to make me look better. What banality and vulgarity - like a golden ring on the nose of a pig! Where did you study to become a potter?"

"I look just like a common mug made for everyday drinking and nothing better than that!"

Finally God said "well, you are a mug made for everyday use. Your squat base makes you very stable, the bevelled rim is good for human lips and the yellow matte surface is silky to the hand. You represent a standard model in my collection that is quite popular among my clients."


To be a mug or not to be?

Of course, God can break that mug to shreds and mix the grounded sherds to strengthen fresh clay for other kind of pottery.

But that would be pitty break and remake your life, don't you think?

The original design may not be fancy but it certainly is elegant in its own way and quite functional for the purpose it was made!



Bible talks about the mug of the nation of Israel

Thou wilt say then unto me, "Why doth He yet find fault, for who hath resisted His will?"
   
But nay, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, "Why hast thou made me thus?"
   
Hath not the potter power over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?
   
What if God, choosing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and this, that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, whom He had prepared before unto glory, even us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Romans 9:19-24


"Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, `What makest thou?' or thy work, `He hath no hands'?
 
 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, `What begettest thou?' or to the woman, `What hast thou brought forth?'
   
 "Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands command ye Me.
   
 I have made the earth and created man upon it; I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
   
 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways; he shall build My city, and he shall let go My captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts."
Isaiah 45:9-13