The Simplicity of Clay

This week began my three week journey with a new kind of prayer and a new medium; listening for God's word(s) to me and clay.  The problem was that I kept putting off starting.  After all I had finally figured out what it means to listen to myself not to mention feeling more comfortable and confident with painting and now I have to switch gears.  What if I do it wrong? 

Ok, seriously, that question is getting old.  When I finally pushed past those lingering thoughts and took the time out of my week (just an hour) I realized that this assignment is probably easier than anything I've done so far.  For years now I have been in the process of "discerning" or listening to God in my life and of all the different varieties of art clay is the one I am most familiar with.  So I pulled out my old musty tools, grabbed my newly purchased box of Sculpy clay, found a comfortable spot and got started. 

But the question still lingers; what is God saying to me today?  Well once I took about 10 seconds of time for myself to sit in silence the answer seemed almost too obvious.  This week is my second week of leading stewardship Bible studies and has been so busy that I have hardly seen my husband or sat down for more than 5 minutes.  Oh and this week our Bible study is focusing on time, how we use it and how it relates to stewardship. 

This week God is telling me to take time.  Take time for those I love.  Take time to be still and breath.  Take time to take care of myself (eating well, exercising, sleeping) as well as the little girl that is growing inside of me.  And maybe most of all that all of this is a gift not something else to be added to the to-do list.  As a matter of fact, the to do list can wait and time can be taken for myself, those I love and God. 

With these thoughts and this prayer I began warming the clay in my hands, time melted away and I was able to just be still, stop thinking and enjoy.  And as an image of time came into my head my hands began to work and the amazing part was that the normal worries of self doubt and ability never reared their ugly heads.  And I worked on and ended up with this:

A pocket watch, a symbol of time and maybe in some ways a reminder of simpler times before the world seemed constantly busy.  One of the reasons I love pocket watches so much is that often they were and sometimes still are given as gifts and the time is taken to engrave them.  This one fits that pattern too.  It says "A Gift for You".  This week, once I got started, it was easier to hear God's message to me and enter into the creative act.  I believe this is partly because of the clay but also partly because God has been whispering this message to me for the past few days as I have been hearing stories and joining in conversation about time and stewardship.  It is a simple message but one that is easy to overlook, especially for people like me whose to do lists are longer than there are hours in the day.  So today is a day off and I am going to treasure this gift that God has given me rather than worry and struggle to get everything done.