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Thank you for this contribution!

As anyone familiar with the processes of pottery making knows, the symbolism of the reference to the shattering of the "jar" is powerful here.

At America's founding, there was a deep awareness by those who capsulized the ideas of liberty into our Declaration of Independence and structured them into a form of self-government in a written Constitution that the hand of Divine Providence was at work. It was recognized in words like "Creator," "Supreme judge," "nature's God," and "Governor of the Universe," among others--all recognizing a Source of life, liberty, and law that was over all, the governed and those elected to positions of power.

Back to the "potter" metaphor. Unlike the awareness of America's wise Founders and early Presidents, of a Hand which moves in the affairs of men and nations, today's pseudointellectuals who pretend to power in America fit what Burke referred to as T. S. Eliot's description, a "provinciality" - the provinciality of time and space." Their breadth, depth, and height of understanding appears limited, making them unaware of their position in the total scheme of things.

There are several other portions from the "wisdom" writings expanding on the metaphor from your reading. Two are offered here for contemplation, along with your excellent contribution today.

“So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at his 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 ‘. . . can I not do with you as this potter does? . . . Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand.’” – Jeremiah 18:3-6“(NIV)

“Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker . . . . Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'?” - Isaiah 45:9 (NIV)