More than thirty years ago, I taught junior high during the day and threw pottery from the time I got home at about four in the afternoon until late at night. Since I have an addictive personality, I spent every moment of every summer immersed in throwing, glazing and firing my pottery. I loved every second of pottery making.

However, I wasn't walking with the Lord at the time, so I didn't realize until years later all the ways clay and the potter symbolize God and his Creation. But as I read my Bible daily and God gave me many Ah-ha! moments, a book emerged. The publisher that I signed a contract with didn't like the title Living Clay and could never come up with an alternative. Though my editor fought valiantly, the book was never published. I never submitted it to another publisher.

In these blogs I will share some of the insights God gave me. Most came from actual hands-on work with clay. Other information and insights came from books. I found the chemical composition chart below from Rhodes, Clay and Glazes for the Potter: Chilton Book Company, 1957, pg 5.

"As one might expect, the usual chemical composition of clay is quite similar to the average composition of the surface of the earth as a whole. Compare, for example, an analysis of a common, red clay with the approximate percentages of oxides on the surface of the earth as a whole:"

                                                                                     Earth as                    Common red

                                                                                     a whole                          clay                          

SiO2                                                                  59.14                           57.02

Al2O3                                                  15.34                           19.15

Fe2O3                                                                 6.88                             6.70

MgO                                                      3.49                             3.08

CaO                                                       5.08                             4.26

Na2O                                                     3.84                             2.38

K2O                                                       3.13                            2.03

H2O                                                       1.15                             3.45

TiO2                                                                   1.05                              .91