Terra cotta is a type of earthen ware, usually reddish-brown in color, fired, yet unglazed. Translated from the Italian, it literally means “baked earth.” I have vivid childhood memories of shallow terra cotta pots with red geraniums. These pots dotted the corners of my grandparents’ southern Oregon deck.

Terra cotta. Of the earth. Fired but not glazed. Like me. Terra cotta. Made of earth. Weathered by sun and suffering. Not refined, not silver-plated, not varnished. Raw and rustic. Untarnished, too.

It is fitting that God calls His people “jars of clay.” We are dust, yet we are purposeful vessels. Our bodies not only hold our never-dying souls. They also hold eternal truth. God says treasures are held within His people. 

Generation after generation, valuable riches are held inside fragile, ordinary, terra cotta pots. The treasure is the message that God Himself loves the world He made and wants restored fellowship with the crown of His creation, mankind. He desires this so much, the second person of the Trinity became man in order to make it happen. His relentless love calls to humanity. Jesus calls to us.

The terra cotta pot breaks down. The dirt spills out. The red geraniums dry up and die at the end of the season. With time, baked earth pots get buried in the ground from which they came. But the seed of the message germinates in a new pot, and the priceless message of hope continues to bloom. Those who find and cherish the message discover they, too, are a dusty pot graced with glory.