The Potter

Have you ever watched the potter at work?  He centers a lump of clay on the wheel, creates a small indention in the middle, then pours water over the clay.  As the wheel spins, his hands deftly shape the clay until he has created his pot in the exact shape he wants.

In scripture God is compared to a potter.  Can you see Him at work, creating with clay, molding and shaping each vessel until it is the perfect shape and size?  Each of us is carefully, lovingly, uniquely formed by our Lord’s hands.

Unfortunately, in our human perceptions, we view ourselves, the vessels He is shaping, and wish we were different.  “Perhaps a different shape or size would be better,” we think, or we wish to use this pot for a different purpose.  We constantly resist His hands, molding us to His will.  But God, in His wisdom, knows what He is doing, and our wishes to change illustrate how we doubt His wisdom.  Still, we constantly try to “correct” what God has made.

At times we look at others, too, and wish to change them.  “If this pot were just a little wider,” we mistakenly think, “it could be used for a different purpose.  If this pot had a slightly different shape, it would be beautiful.”  And we try to form that vessel into the image we have for it.  When we do that, we doubt God’s handiwork.  The clay never dictates to the potter what shape it should be; neither does it tell the potter how to shape other pots.

 God created the world in seven days, yet He constantly refines and perfects each of us.  Can you see Him at His wheel?  He pauses a moment at His work, steps back, looks, and says, “It is good.”

Father, make us aware of your hand in our lives, shaping and molding each of us into your image.  Help us to yield to Your hand and to Your judgment of the size, shape, and purpose for each of your precious vessels.

 Isaiah 64:8: (NKJ): “Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, You are the potter we are all the work of are Your hand.”