Project 119: Hope in the Upheaval | Jeremiah 18
| Project 119 | Tim Sanderlin
“Sit Still”
April 6th, 2020. Only a few weeks after the United States shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided, like many others, to spend most of my time outside. Upon doing this, I realized that my yard and its landscaping were a disaster. Above all, I prioritized removing a shrub from our front yard. If you have ever tried to remove a shrub that has been in the same place for years, you will know it is a bigger undertaking than you could have ever imagined. After using two different kinds of shovels, an axe, and a collective seven hours of trying to mine it out of the earth, I took to more reckless methods—an automated hedge trimmer.
I put on my work gloves, gassed up the trimmer, and went to work. Not three minutes later, I was headed inside with a finger that had made direct contact with a pretty sharp and very fast blade. I couldn’t go to a hospital at this point in time, so I simply called a nurse friend and asked if she could come help. While I no longer have feeling in the tip of my middle finger, it is now hardly noticeable that the incident ever took place. At the time, though, my finger was in pretty bad shape, and in order for it to be mended back to its original figure, my friend told me I had to “sit still” and let her restore my finger. Sitting still is a hard thing to do.
Jeremiah, circa 600 BC. The Lord comes to Jeremiah, telling him to go down to the potter's house. Upon approaching the potter at his wheel, Jeremiah notices the pot the craftsman is tending is far from finished. The clay is marred and mangled. The potter seems to not even look up from the task at hand and decides to keep working with the disfigured pot and “shaping it as seemed best to him” (Jeremiah 18:4 NIV).
At times when creating something even as simple as a cup of coffee and things go awry, we can be quick to dispose of the failed product and start over; but not this potter. This potter saw the problem, addressed it, put his hands on it, and slowly shaped it into something usable. What did the clay need to do? Sit still. All the clay had to do was stay right there in the hands of the potter.
Notice this is not a quick craft! Pottery takes time. But the product is something far more than a trinket; it is often an intricate vessel with multiple uses. The Potter, our Father as we know him, is not interested in making us into ornaments. Instead, he is sitting at the wheel, willing to make us into vessels, people, children, image bearers, apprentices, and priests. What do we have to do in this painstaking process of redemption? Stay in his arms. “Sit still.”