“God lives in my heart.”  My boy earnestly shares this thought with me one day while adding that there is enough room in his heart for God, as well as love for me and the rest of the family.  I smile and wrap my arms around his little body.  My boy is blessed with a pure, loving heart.  His unwavering faith in God sometimes stops me in my own tracks.

Now, I sit with a large chunk of clay in front of me, and think I finally “get” the concept that God dwells within me.  What began as an 8-week journey with the intentions of becoming “unstuck” and learning some art skills, ended-up being much more.  My hands instinctively move over the moist clay.  I have not worked with clay since middle-school and yet it feels so familiar.  It’s supple texture yields easily to the gentle pressure of my fingers.  I mold her chest into a heart and gently smooth the curve of her neck.  Selecting a wooden carving tool, I move-on to carve s-shaped lines along the top and back of her head.  Hair now cascades down her back.  Clay is rolled-out  flat between two rulers, readying it for cutting.  Carefully, I wrap the  crescent-shaped slabs  around her body.  These  “spirit-cloths”  envelope an open-heart.  A whole heart radiating with God’s light.

Nearly an hour and a half later, I step-back and look at my creation.  I am both moved and stunned by the beauty of this experience.  After weeks of painting and creating through a myriad of emotions that came along for the ride, my hands effortlessly molded the surrendering of my spirit.

  … We are the clay, you are the potter;  we are all the work of your hand.   – Isaiah 65:8

I think of this scripture and  imagine God  shaping and molding the spirit that dwells inside me.  Just like the clay that surrenders to the push and pull of the sculptor’s hands, what a beautiful experience it must be for God to shape a surrendered spirit.  A spirit that acknowledges the God within and offers itself-up as a co-creator, trusting that God will form something beautiful, whether it is what we have in mind or not.

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