Heidi McKendrick’s Secrets of Broken Pottery: Seeing the Great Potter — Being Seen by Him is a wonderfully written, well-researched book with a message that is central in the Bible: God doesn’t abandon His own. The author uses the relationship between the potter and the pottery (God and humanity) to show the solicitude with which God loves His children, even when they feel unworthy and suffering. Even when the pottery is broken, God doesn’t abandon the broken pieces; in fact, He goes after the broken pieces to fashion a purpose, a new creation. Those broken pieces are our hurting humanity, the betrayals we experience, our lack of love and appreciation, our inability to free ourselves from sin, our longing for fulfillment, our inner pain, and the pain we cause ourselves or the one we receive from others. This book shows that the way God sees and loves us is far different from the opinion we have of Him.

I felt showered with grace as I read this book and was thrilled to discover that God called and embraced biblical characters who were not that different from me — Abraham, Job, Hagar, Leah, the Blessed Mother of Jesus, and many others. The author writes in a style that is engaging and conveys a message that touches readers at the very core of their being. There are readers who have been misled to see God as a vindictive person who doesn’t tolerate evil, but this book portrays Him as one filled with compassion and whose inscrutable ways lead us with tenderness back to His heart. This book is filled with spiritual wisdom and insights that will completely change the way most people view their relationship with God. Secrets of Broken Pottery: Seeing the Great Potter — Being Seen by Him is a gift to be received with gratitude and shared with others. It has a nugget of wisdom for everyone.

Secrets of Broken Pottery: Seeing the Great Potter —Being Seen by Him by Heidi McKendrick explores the relationship between the potter and the clay. The Potter is God, our Creator, and we are the clay. This book redefines our relationship with God and has the potential to shift the way we perceive God and the way we understand how God looks at us. Using the allegory of the potter, the author writes an inspirational message that is grounded in Scriptures, using biblical stories to share the message of God’s compassionate love and care for humanity. This book conveys the powerful message that God loves us unconditionally, and more so when we are broken and utterly vulnerable.

Heidi McKendrick’s book is a treasure trove for anyone who feels broken, inadequate, and forlorn — and aren’t we all feeling that way? In this book, the author demonstrates with biblical stories and soul-stirring examples how God cares about His handiwork and what He does when we are broken — whether by ourselves or someone else, intentionally or unintentionally. The author walks readers through some of the prominent stories in the Bible to show how God cherished His broken pottery. Examples include Job who saw God; Abraham and his dysfunctional dynasty; Hagar who was invisible and voiceless, but seen and heard by God; Leah who felt ugly and unloved; Dina who was raped and coerced into silence; Joseph, who suffered betrayal and became restored; Tamar, the black widow; Elijah, a prophet who was broken under a mountain; the bleeding woman in the Gospel; Mary, the mother of Jesus; and many others.

The author unveils twenty secrets that reveal the powerful ways God holds us in unconditional love. The message of this book is pretty simple: no matter how broken and weak, how sinful and domineering, how hollow we feel, and how unworthy we are, God loves us in a place where darkness invades our soul. Secrets of Broken Pottery: Seeing the Great Potter — Being Seen by Him is written in a powerful, compassionate tone that draws the reader completely in, loaded with spiritual lessons that will, undoubtedly, deepen our experience of God.

Secrets of Broken Pottery: Seeing the Great Potter — Being Seen by Him by Heidi McKendrick is an inspirational book that discusses our relationship with God, a book that will restore a healthy image of God in most people. The author uses the biblical image of the Potter in which we are described as clay in the Potter’s hand to discuss the dynamics of the relationship between God and humanity, showing how, like a good Potter, God does not abandon us even when we become broken pieces. The author shares the different ways we can be broken, whether by our own intentional doing or by the fault of others, and shows the similarities between our brokenness and the limitations in the humanity of some of the biblical characters that found favor with God, including Moses, Job, Elijah, Leah, and many others.

This is a well-researched and intelligently written book that shows clearly how God sees us; the message is backed by strong biblical arguments. It is the book I should have read a long time ago because there have been those moments I have found myself asking: “My God, why are you so hard on me?” Heidi McKendrick leads readers to a deeper and clearer understanding of the unfathomable love of God which embraces us even more strongly in moments of weakness, brokenness, and pain. Just as a great Potter never wastes his clay, our Creator never wastes any aspect of our humanity; He redesigns us and transforms us to fit His bigger purpose. Secrets of Broken Pottery: Seeing the Great Potter — Being Seen by Him should be read by everyone. It is a powerful message of hope that will change the way most of us see God. A gift of faith that has the potential to bring hope and joy and love into the human heart.

Secrets of Broken Pottery: Seeing the Great Potter - Being Seen by Him by Heidi McKendrick is an inspiring book that has the unique potential to alter the way readers see God and how they perceive their relationship with Him. In this book, the author offers a fresh interpretation of the biblical analogy of God as the Great Potter, and shows readers how God never wastes a broken piece of His creation. In the first part, the author talks about our brokenness. We are the clay in God’s deft and perfect hands, and we get broken in many ways, and at times through our own fault or through the intentional doings of others. Readers will understand how they get broken and why they are broken and hurt. The second part presents examples of biblical characters, from prophets to social outcasts, from kings to followers of Jesus, characters who were broken like us, but whose brokenness became a tool for God to communicate the power of His creative love. This book is about each of us; it tells our own story, allowing us to see ourselves through the experience of biblical characters.

I particularly enjoyed the third part of the book in which the author shares twenty secrets of broken pottery and uncovers paths to spiritual growth and healing. This book is a wonderful gift of faith and it is easy to hear and see one’s self in the stories. The discussion on the examples of broken pottery is eye-opening and filled with spiritual wisdom and insight, a strong affirmation that God, the Great Potter, remains faithful, even if we are not faithful. From the weeping prophet to the lustful king, from the prophet smashed under the mountain, to the bleeding woman at Jesus’ table, from the Samaritan woman at the well to many other broken and flawed characters, the author explores God’s unwavering love and compassion toward His creatures. As one goes from one biblical story to the next, one begins to understand the steadfastness of God’s love and the unfathomable way He espouses us. The message of this book is powerful; it is one that every person needs to hear, and one that will draw readers closer to God in a journey that is filled with hope.