the clay vessel

mud-mass

once scooped from earth 

by artisan hands

for lathering to a vessel of clay

spun and rounded round and round 

a russet face smiles broad; 

kilned and polished to beauty-best 

a finished art glints forth.

timbered bowl coated and sold 

to a lord for a flower-not 

but unctuous nard to hold.

unshelved to incense nooks 

of the house empty with stale air 

this once earth-slush 

now eye-chalice of the lord.  

grace-burned vessel 

and chosen nard phial

doth yeast the house with scents 

of its soul breathing through clay.

*...even with its deficiencies, sin itself can be put to work by God; granted that it happens, it at once begins to function as part of the providential ordering of all things for our good.  This is true even of our own sins.   To be humbled by our sins is, in the long run, far more profitable for us than for us to become conceited because of our moral success.

...in God there is no darkness at all (1 Jn. 1:5).  God does not see good and evil, as it were, sitting side by side, and choose between them.  God sees all that (God) has made, and it is very good (Gen 1:31).

*Simon Tugwell