Scripture: Jeremiah 18:3-6
So I went down to the potter’s house, no rx 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: The humans that wrote the various pieces of literature and letters that would eventually become The Bible, used writing as a spiritual exercise. The Bible is a mental and spiritual workout book, a midrash written by people struggling to understand the meaning of existence, and striving to comprehend the constant reshaping that was taking place in their lives and their world. Everything in the Bible was written by Jewish people who had endured thousands of years of flux, a biorhythm of independence and invasion, of sovereignty and slavery. They intimately understood God as constantly transforming existence, and were humble enough to understand that the transitory nature of everything meant that their short lives needed to be lived with integrity, love, and mercy, reflecting what they had come to understand about the nature of God.

These early philosophers and theologians, whose work we are lucky to have preserved in the Bible and other sources, understood that everything in the universe, including themselves, is in a constant state of change and reformation. They prayed that God was always changing both them personally, and the world around them. They saw God as a force that improves everything, smoothing out the rough spots and completely transforming the stuff that just doesn’t work out. This idea filled them with hope, and should also fill us with hope, because in a very literal way, every moment of our lives is a little better than the last.

Prayer: Glorious Lord of understanding, help me find a faith that is so strong it dares to be fluid. Amen.