The Potter > the clay

Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8

During a Threading the Theme sectional at an ACTS Fall Workshop in Sioux Falls there were five or six ladies standing in front of the group miming one of the ways we can serve others and point to God’s greatness. At least that’s what they were supposed to be doing. (See page 41, “The Potter and the Clay” in the Theme Resource Book.)

The specific assignment was for one person in the group to be the “potter” and the rest of the ladies to be the “clay.” In silence, the potter was to sculpt the clay into an act of service, and the clay was supposed to conform to the potter’s molding. It wasn’t going well.

There was no silent submission. The clay insisted on her way. “No, no! We should do this!” “Let’s do it this way.” “No, let’s try this!” Instead of waiting for the potter to shape them into position, they were rearranging themselves and telling the potter what to do. Talk about an object lesson within an object lesson!

God’s Word is clear. The Potter is greater than the clay! Yet like the Israelites, how often do we turn things around, acting as if our ways and plans are greater than the Potter’s? Isaiah wrote, You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? (29:16). Paul reiterates the same truth in Romans. Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? (9:20-21)

Sisters, this is our reality. We’re cracked pots. That’s right. Cracked pots. The size and shape of the cracks and chips in our pots may look different from one another, but we each have the same choice to make. Will we make ourselves the greatest by sitting on the potter’s wheel and grumbling with our Maker? Or will we submit and let Jesus, the treasure within us, shine through our cracks and display the all-surpassing, great power of God within us? (2 Corinthians 4:7)

HE>i: Like clay in the hand of the potter, God has His hand on you and your circumstances. How are you responding to His sovereign choices?

His hand is on your life, developing your faith to display His glory. He will transform you into a vessel of honor. You can trust your life to the Potter’s hand.

Anne Graham Lotz

grace and peace,

Lenae