Sometimes things happen and it leaves us feeling broken. Shattered.
Let me tell you about grog.

In pottery, sometimes you need grog. It is added to clay to “give texture, reduce shrinking during firing, help the clay to form uniformly and stop cracking and warping when being fired.” (Ceramic-Pottery Dictionary, Susan Mussi). You get grog from using shattered or broken bits of pottery and grinding it down to create a dust. This grog has to be shattered just right – if the dust is too fine then it won’t add any structure to the new clay, and if it’s too coarse then it will make the potter’s hands bleed. If it’s shattered just right then the grog allows the new clay to be formed into a vessel larger and stronger than before. Grog allows vessels to go through much hotter fires and often increases the beauty of a finished, glazed pot.

Isaiah talks about Judah being broken in pieces like pottery, shattered… (30:14). David says that the Lord “knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:14). In the hands of a wise and skilful potter, broken pieces of pottery can be shattered and turned into grog to create something stronger, more resilient and more beautiful than ever before. Isaiah 30 continues, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you” (v18-19).

If you feel like God is standing idly by while circumstances, relationships or other situations are grinding you to dust. Don’t fear. He knows we are but dust. And He is the master potter. He can take our shattered, hurting, broken pieces and use them to build us back stronger with less cracking, greater plasticity, and an ability to withstand much hotter furnaces than we ever had before. He longs to be gracious to you – be blessed as you wait for him. He will answer you.