#206 PICKING UP THE PIECES 9-29-26
Sometimes it seems that all we have left are pieces. Pieces of plans that did not work out. Pieces of relationships that were broken. Pieces of dreams that never became what we hoped. Pieces of days that somehow turned into darkness. Sometimes sin, failure, disappointment, or simply the passing of time can leave us looking at our lives and wondering what could possibly be made from what remains.
Jeremiah went down to the potter’s house and saw something that speaks directly to those moments. The potter was working at the wheel, but “the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make” (Jeremiah 18:4). The clay was marred, but it was still in the potter’s hands. That is the part we must not miss. Being broken does not mean being abandoned. Being marred does not mean being useless. The clay was still where it needed to be.
The Bible is filled with people who had pieces of their lives scattered around them, yet God was not finished with them. Peter denied Jesus, but Jesus restored Peter. David sinned terribly, yet he found his way back to God. Moses failed and fled into the wilderness, but God called him again. Paul spent his early years persecuting the church, yet Christ made him an instrument for carrying the gospel to the world. Their failures became part of their stories, but they did not have to become the final chapter.
Sometimes we want God to put everything back exactly as it was. But Jeremiah says the potter “made it again into another vessel.” God may not simply restore the life we had before. He may shape something different, deeper, and more useful from what we have experienced. Isaiah said, “But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). The clay does not determine the vessel. The Potter does.
So if you are picking up the pieces today, do not give up on what God can do with them. Give Him the pieces. Give Him the disappointment. Give Him the failure. Give Him the years you wish you could live again. Give Him the broken places you have tried to hide. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). The hands that hold the pieces are the hands of the Potter.
You may not understand what God is making from your life right now. You may only see broken clay. But He sees the vessel. Keep trusting Him. Keep walking with Him. Keep letting Him work. The pieces are not the end of the story. They may simply be the material from which God is making something new.
The Potter has not walked away from the wheel.
And He is not finished with you.
BDD
