A company called Big City Forests turns useless wood pallets into expensive furniture. Pallet chips are worth $30 a ton; but, this company recycles the pallets and makes expensive floor covering worth $1200 a ton, and furniture worth $6,000 a ton! This illustrates a principle God gave Jeremiah for the benefit of his people and for us. We read in this in Jer. Ch 18: God told Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So he went and found the potter working at his wheel, but the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again, and started over. Then the Lord gave Jeremiah 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. If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.” One lesson we get from the potter and clay is this. God, the Potter, has authority and power over every nation or person. As clay, we are imperfect, but when we repent, God delights to remake us into what is useful and beautiful.
