Good morning. You can tell a lot about an archeologist by what excites him or her the most when they find something. Sure, everyone gets excited when they find ornate jewelry made of gold and set with precious stones. But is that what would excite an archeologist more than any other find?
Most archeologists say that the most intriguing, exciting, and to them valuable, thing to find at an archeological dig site is a clay pot. The older and the more plain the better.
It is the simple and plain clay pot that reveals the most about the people who lived in the area being examined. The pot may have traces of foods that comprised the diets of those people. It may have contained beads, or stones, or water, or wine. But where the pot was located, what it was being used for, whether it was chipped and worn but still in use, everything about that pot is a clue to knowing more about the people who once put it to use. The pot speaks volumes about the one who possessed it.
So it is with you and me, for we are “clay pots”. At least that is how we are described in scripture: But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 1 Corinthians 4:7-10
We are clay pots, simple and ordinary, probably with a chip or crack or two. But the passage says we are pretty tough as pots go, banged around but not quite broken. What we contain speaks not of ourselves but of the One who possesses us.
Because we are so ordinary, so unremarkable, so flawed but still useful, we reveal the power of God. After all, how could the fruit of the spirit which is manifest in the life of every Christian person flourish in a “clay pot” environment? No, God must be at work, it is the only answer that fits. His people are simply not capable in and of themselves, it has to be God.
May our efforts and righteous actions reveal the power of the Almighty within us. May we be intrigued by the beauty and the function of every member of the family, the Body of Christ. May every clay pot rejoice that we carry the power of the Maker within.
Vern