Where Is Your Potter's House?

The week before Lent, I visited one of my favorite friends, Sister Karen Van deWalle. Sister Karen is a potter.

She creates in a little purple and blue house in Broad Ripple, an artsy section of Indianapolis. When I visit, Sister Karen is usually "throwing," the term she uses to describe molding the clay into a vase or bowl. The day I visited, she was making mugs. I sit and watch her work and we talk about whatever I want. I absolutely love being in the midst of Sister Karen's creative energy-- watching her hands make something beautiful from an ugly blop of clay.

Just before Ash Wednesday, God led me to read Jeremiah 18:1-4, (where God told Jeremiah to go to the potter's house where God would give Jeremiah a message), for Lenten reflection. I have a sense that the time I spent with Sister Karen was the beginning of the path that I have followed now for a week--one of the "potter's houses" in my life where I hear God's word.

Today my "potter's house" was at the YMCA, more specifically in the natatorium where I spent close to thirty minutes swimming laps. God's word came very specifically for close friends going through a difficult time with their family. The insights regarded giving these persons information and peace regarding a puzzling situation. Sometimes my "potter's house" is right in my kitchen when I bake bread or biscuits. Kneading the dough immediately brings me into an awareness of God's presence creating an open heart to hear God's word.

Where are your "potter's houses" ? Where are you going to hear God's word during these forty days of Lent? How is God speaking to you?

God open our eyes to see a place where you can come to us. Open our hearts to hear your word. Amen.

Jacquie Reed,
Fishers, Indiana