October 13, 2010

• October 11

  

  Today's "Go Somewhere" was to the Seikaido Bunko Art Museum in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward to take in the last day of an exhibition of old Chinese ceramics.  We have become ceramics freaks of late, and I suppose it is because of the influence of Dotter who requested that we explore some of the many ceramics kilns in Kyushu.  The tea bowl above is a "Youhen Tenmoku" bowl, and has been classified as a National Treasure because of the beauty and rarity of the glaze that gives it a rather cosmic appearance.  Although these bowls are originally from China, there are only three samples left and they are all in Japan.  Many have tried to duplicate the process involved in making them, but it still remains a mystery.  The contents of the glaze are of course important, as well as the way in which the piece is cooled in the kiln.  A longer cooling process apparently allows chemicals in the molten glaze to crystallize and create a unique design.

  As we have gone to the different kilns, the people there have been kind enough to explain the processes involved in producing ceramics.  Some items must be fired several times before they are finished, and are carefully inspected at each stage.  Those that satisfy the potter move on to the next stage of glazing, and those that are unsatisfactory are broken and thrown away.  The finished product is one which the potter holds up and declares "good."

  Life seems a bit like this sometimes.  God puts all of us through trials at some point to harden us and make us stronger or to melt us that we may be recast in the image of Christ.  I am not sure how far this analogy can be carried, but I found it interesting.

   Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.  Isaiah 64:8

  These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  I Peter 1:7

  The Refiners Fire
  There burns a fire with sacred heat
  White hot with holy flame
  And all who dare pass through its blaze
  Will not emerge the same
  Some as bronze, and some as silver
  Some as gold, then with great skill
  All are hammered by their sufferings
  On the anvil of His will

  The Refiner's fire
  Has now become my souls desire
  Purged and cleansed and purified
  That the Lord be glorified
  He is consuming my soul
  Refining me, making me whole
  No matter what I may lose
  I choose the Refiner's fire

  I'm learning now to trust His touch
  To crave the fire's embrace
  For though my past with sin was etched
  His mercies did erase
  Each time His purging cleanses deeper
  I'm not sure that I'll survive
  Yet the strength in growing weaker
  Keeps my hungry soul alive

   

  • 11:19
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