The Bowl That Became a Vase

In 2019, Japanese ceramic artist Takahiro Kondo was demonstrating his craft at a workshop in Portland, Oregon. He had been shaping a wide, shallow bowl on his wheel for nearly ten minutes when the clay suddenly collapsed — one side buckling inward, the symmetry ruined. A few attendees groaned. But Kondo never stopped the wheel. Without hesitation, his wet hands pressed the failed bowl back into a mound, and he began again. This time, he pulled the clay upward instead of outward, forming a tall, slender vase. "The clay told me it didn't want to be a bowl," he said with a quiet smile. The vase he finished was more striking than the bowl he had planned.

When Jeremiah walked into the potter's house, he saw this exact moment — the vessel marred in the potter's hand, and the potter simply beginning again. God wasn't throwing the clay away. He wasn't reaching for a fresh lump. He was reworking the same clay into something new.

This is the heartbeat of Jeremiah 18. The Almighty looks at a nation — or a life — that has lost its shape, and He doesn't discard it. He applies pressure, yes. He collapses what isn't working. But His hands never leave the wheel. The call to repentance in verse eleven isn't a threat. It is an invitation to stop resisting the Potter's hands and let Him reshape you into what He intended all along.