yesterday at Bible study, we had a special guest speaker named Carol Oliver. she is a potter, and came to tell us all about the Biblical analogy of God being the potter and us being the clay, all from a potter's perspective, while making pottery in front of us. it couldn't have been more amazing, one hour full of breathtaking analogy. but there were some things that stood out to me. [if you ever have the chance to see her "speak" somewhere, GO!] it was near the end of her presentation, when she was taking us through the process of firing the pottery after it had been carefully kneaded, spun, and shaped into the exact piece that the potter had planned. after it's molded, it has to be thrown into a kiln at 1800 degrees to be "fired". if it doesn't go through the fire, it can never be used. it will just crack or melt back into a messy lump of clay. after the fire, it is thrown into a trashcan with newspaper and everything goes up in flames again....