Pottery

For your beauty shop names:  "Click Hair", and "Hair Creation Faith."

Before Japan, I had never had the opportunity to try working with clay.  When Sister Baird mentioned that we would have an opportunity to go try doing it, I didn't get all that excited.  I knew I wouldn't be good at it, and I wasn't sure I wanted to even waste the time.

But then we went to Seto.  Seto is famous for it's pottery.  The city has some of the world's finest clay for pottery, and ancient spots have been found in the area where clay was dug out for making pottery centuries ago.  Sister Baird loves to take people who are visiting to a special shop where pottery making has been in the family, from generation to generation, for 16 generations.

This wonderful man started out doing something else when he was young, but as his father aged and there was no one to take his place, the idea of continuing on in the family tradition called to him.  He answered affirmatively, and I'm glad.

C

   Cato san and his sweet mother.

He is a kind and happy man, and from all I can tell, he is very glad he is a potter. He is well-known for his work, and he is a master.  The items on display at his little shop are beautiful.  But the thing that really speaks of his mastery is to watch him.  He can make miracles with a lump of clay.  And he can teach like a master, too.

Lee and I went with Sister Baird and some family who had come to visit from Utah.  It was one of the most enjoyable, peace-giving, relaxing activities I've done in a long time.  I loved it.  I loved the feel of the clay in my hands, and I loved watching it respond to my touch.  I loved fashioning it into something useful.  And if I ever made a mistake, I could get help from "the touch of the master's hand."
He would be alongside to help, to coach, and to repair.

While Sister Dalton was here, Sister Baird
also took her to experience this.
She loved it as well.

When we had done the best we could, he would put on the final touch to make it beautiful.  Lee and I together made 8 small plates and 8 rice bowls.  We left them to be perfected in shape, cleaned up, fired and painted--again, by the master.  We now have some lovely, unique dishes to take home with us as a memory of Japan and working with a master.  And we did much of it ourselves.

How like life.  We are doing our best, shaping ourselves and our families to the best of our abilities.  But when things aren't quite perfect, we have the master's hand to fix our foibles and perfect what we can't perfect, so that after we have been fired and painted, we will be just as He wants us to be and much better than we ever thought we could be.  Oh, thank Heaven, for the touch of the Master's hand in our lives.