Squashed

"The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 'Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there.' So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. Then the Lord gave me this message: 'O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand.'"  (Jeremiah 18:1-6)

Have you ever had to start over? There are times, I suppose, when we make such a mess of things that God chooses to start all over with us.  We become a squashed pot.  I've been there and perhaps you have as well.  The encouragement from the text is not that we're squashed, but rather that God begins anew.  We're not thrown away--we're reshaped, restored, reborn, renewed, and revived!  If you've been squashed, it's time to get up and start again.

“When you have nothing left but God,you have more than enough to start over again.”  --Mother Teresa