We Were Formed In God's Image!

Jer. 8:1-6 & Mt. 13:47-53

What is God really like? None of us knows but in today's First Reading there is a helpful insight. Jeremiah watched a potter at work, carefully moulding and shaping his clay into a vessel. If it did not come out as planned, he simply reworked it until he achieved the right shape.

Observing the potter, Jeremiah was inspired to see that this was how God acted in people's lives. He does not mass produce His people. Each one of us is lovingly shaped and formed by His hand. Each of us is unique, bearing the maker's mark but having our own individual character.

Like the potter's clay we do not always behave as God intends. He has a design in mind for us, knowing what He wants us to be. But we so often fall short of His expectations. That is why He sometimes has to guide us and reshape us. The remoulding can be a painful experience, but we have to trust Our heavenly Father as we put ourselves in His hands.

There are times when we feel that everything has gone wrong in our life. All our hopes and plans have fallen apart. But perhaps God is allowing this to happen so that He can rebuild us and make us into the people He knows we can be.

When a relationship breaks down, a business fails or a tragedy strikes, life can look very bleak. It is then that God can guide us, showing us how to begin again and do something different. He will never destroy us but, like the potter, He will form us into a new shape. We can think that the bottom has dropped out of our lives, but God is in control and has the power to fashion us into something better and stronger.

In the Gospel today Jesus speaks of the Final Judgement when the good will be separated from the evil. If we are leading good lives, making God its centre, we have no need to fear our final judgement. Rather it is something we should look forward to because that is when we will see God face to face.

Lord Jesus, we who want to be united with You, dispel any anxiety about death and judgement. Help us to set our hearts on the goal of seeing Your face, and joining You in the final banquet in Your heavenly kingdom.