Isaiah 64:8: “O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” On January 29-30, twenty ladies from our church, community, and beyond came together at the Duncan Gray Center in Canton for the “I Am the Clay” retreat led by potter and spiritual director, Jane Knight.  We enjoyed the beautiful natural setting, music led by Michelle Mayfield and Sabrina Williams, excellent food, and especially the opportunity to grow in relationship with God and one another.

We began on Friday night by learning about and walked through a prayer labyrinth.  We reflected on our life as a journey: those who have walked with us, the detours, the blessings and disappointments.  Saturday was all about pottery. We learned about it, played with it, admired it, bought it, and watched while it was made. The potter and clay image has always been a meaningful biblical image for me.  God has used this image repeatedly in my life to speak to me. I was amazed at how many parallels Jane was able to draw from pottery and make applicable to the spiritual life.  Jane presented more depth and detail than I thought would be possible from the simple yet profound image of God as the potter and us as the clay.  We each chose a pottery-related phrase to be our prayer for the retreat: center me, open me, hold me, shape me, fill me, trim me, use me, etc.

One of my favorite activities included our opportunity to play with clay. Jane gave each of us a piece of red clay and a piece of white clay, and immediately I formed my plan of what I was going to make. However, Jane then explained, “I don’t want you to make anything. The red clay is God; the white clay is you. I want you to kneed the two pieces of clay together and watch what happens as you spend time with God.”  Though it was not my plan, I was amazed as I worked the clay together and watched as the white clay turned not pink, but red. The God clay took over the “me” clay, until “I” looked like God.

We reflected on our brokenness as well. Jane talked about how we all have dark and broken pieces, but together they can form a beautiful picture. She said, “A potter doesn’t throw away pieces of pottery when she messes up. She reclaims them.”  We all made individual crosses out of broken pieces of pottery, and we bought a cross made out of broken things to go on the wall of crosses in our fellowship hall.

At the end of our retreat, Jane gave us another small piece of clay. We each put our fingerprint into our piece and laid it on the altar, acknowledging and embracing our God-created uniqueness.  We then watched as Jane gathered all the small pieces, pressed them together, and fashioned a bowl on her pottery wheel. What a powerful image of community and how we need each other as the body of Christ.  Jane will fire and glaze the bowl and send it back to us.

May we all continue to grow to be more like our Divine Potter.

Peace, ~Amy

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