In 1952, in an effort to prevent clumsy or careless people from breaking items in a shop, a Miami Beach storeowner posted a sign that read: âYou break it, you buy it.â The catchy phrase served as a warning to shoppers. This type of sign can now be seen in many boutiques.
Ironically, a different sign might be placed in a real potterâs shop. It would say: âIf you break it, weâll make it into something better.â And thatâs exactly whatâs revealed in Jeremiah 18.
Jeremiah visits a potterâs house and sees the potter shaping the âmarredâ clay with his hands, carefully handling the material and forming âit into another potâ (v. 4). The prophet reminds us that God is indeed a skillful potter, and we are the clay. He is sovereign and can use what He creates to both destroy evil and create beauty in us.
God can shape us even when weâre marred or broken. He, the masterful potter, can and is willing to create new and precious pottery from our shattered pieces. God doesnât look at our broken lives, mistakes, and past sins as unusable material. Instead, He picks up our pieces and reshapes them as He sees best.
Even in our brokenness, we have immense value to our Master Potter. In His hands, the broken pieces of our lives can be reshaped into beautiful vessels that can be used by Him (v. 4).
