Scripture: Jeremiah 18:3-6
So I went down to the potter’s house, buy cialis and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
      Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, house of Israel, as this potter does?”

Thought for the Day:  How do you feel about the idea of being molded and recast? Can you imagine God spiritually reshaping you, smoothing away your rough edges and blemishes, always conforming you more closely to a state of perfected being? How about God making you the best human possible, in the image of Jesus? Is it difficult for you to imagine God as an entity or energy that is truly interactive with all of creation?

I think it’s much more difficult for people today to imagine God as somehow nature yet beyond nature. The sciences have allowed us to glean a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of existence than ever before in human history (as far as we know, although I think we’ve lost as much knowledge throughout history as we’ve gained, making the entire process a sort of wash). Our knowledge of the laws of nature makes it difficult for us to believe in a god who is actively, consciously involved in the evolution of the world, or in a god who created the universe by blowing breath into it. But it’s unlikely that even the ancient people who used that language to speak of God thought of God that literally.

We need to remember that the Bible is not literal, and that, as today’s passage shows, faith is an exercise. Faith is designed, especially in our postmodern era, to help us think outside of ourselves. Faith helps us imagine a universe that is more than a series of natural laws. Faith helps us imagine a universe in which everything is intimately connected, in which everything is in a constant state of flux (for nothing is really ever stationary), being reformed, reshaped, annihilated and recreated. It’s natural. It’s God’s way. And it happens to us and everything we believe and hold dear, all the time. Rejoice in being reshaped, for at any given moment, you can count on the fact that God is forming you into exactly who you need to be. I find that pretty awe-inspiring.

[Continued tomorrow]

Prayer: I know that every day is an all-new reality, and that every moment of that new reality I become a new being, because that’s just the way you roll, my loving and creative God of all existence. Amen.