Isaiah says: “We are the clay, [God is] the potter” (Is. 64:8). Do you feel sometimes like you are just a lump of clay? As you die to your own rights, surrendering your will to His, you will be increasingly grateful that you are clay in the Divine Potter’s loving hands.
At times, it means being thrown hard on the Potter’s wheel. Sometimes it means being pressed or even pounded under the hand of God. Sometimes it means being firmly held while the wheel turns. That reshaping and forming goes on and on, according to the Potter’s plan. The clay doesn’t shape itself, like some self-improvement program, saying, “Please bless the object I am about to become as I shape my life.” The clay is clay; it becomes what the Potter wants it to be.
God is making and shaping you for His purposes and for His pleasure. Maybe the hardest thing for you to accept right now is that at this moment he is shaping you to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making? (Isaiah 45:9).
Greg,
ReplyDeleteI think the illustration you chose to use from Scripture--we being the clay, God being the Potter--is foundational to understanding the space between creation and Creator that needs to be bridged the work of the Holy Spirit.
The clay in inanimate; the Potter is very much animated by Spirit and Soul and Body. The clay has not will to resist; the Potter makes all of the choices. The clay has no definition or function but only as determined by the mind and hands of the Potter.
Yet we as His creation progress in Scripture from inanimate clay all the way up to being co-regents with Him in the ruling and reigning of the universe! Wow!
Stan
Brother Greg-
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading your blog and get a lot of "spiritual nourishment" from reading them. The picture of God as Potter and us as the clay has always been a powerful metaphor for me. It reminded me of a story that perhaps you have heard:
"one day there was a lump of clay sitting near the potters wheel. The potter took the clay and began to knead it with his fingers and squeeze it quite roughly. The clay cried out, "Master, please stop...all that squeezing and kneading is hurting me!" the master looked at the clay with gentle eyes and said, "Not yet...not yet." Then the master placed the clay on the wheel and begin spinning the wheel very quickly. The clay began to feel sick and cried out - "Master, please stop...I think I am going to be sick". The master just looked at the clay with gentle eyes and said, not yet...not yet." When the spinning finally stopped, the clay was relieved - but then the master took some sort of glaze and brushed it all over the clay. The fumes from the glaze caused the clay to choke and he cried out, Master please stop...the fumes are choking me!" Again, the master looked at him with gentle eyes and said, "not yet...not yet"! Just when the clay thought the worst was over, the master placed the clay in the oven at 600 degrees. It was so hot the clay thought for sure it was going to perish in the flames -- He could see the master through a little glass window in the oven and as he was about to cry out to the master to stop -- as if anticipating what the clay was about to say, the master looked through the window --- the clay could see the masters lips as he mouthed the words, "not yet...not yet". when it was finally over, the master took the clay out to let it cool....but in a matter of moments, he brushed more material on the clay and put him back in the oven. He took the clay out of the oven and begin to speak to it. He said to the clay... I know you hated it when I kneaded you and squeezed you with my hands, but I had to do that to make you pliable. And I know you felt sick when I put you on the wheel and spun you around, but I had to shape you into the design I had in mind. And I know you hated the fumes...but I had to paint the design on you that made you unique and beautiful. I know you didn't understand when I put you in the oven, but it was a necessary part of the process to make you strong and allow you to hold your shape. And when I finally put the final glaze on you and placed you back in the oven, I knew you thought you would perish-- but I did not want you to crack. Then he said would you like to see what I have created? The clay answered yes..."I would very much like to see what you have created". When he looked in the mirror he beheld himself -- and he no longer saw a lump of clay, but a beautiful hand painted china teacup. Long story...but you get the picture...God is forming us for his glory, but we also become his masterpiece!
Woody Pasion
Thanks, Woody, for adding to the analogy so illustriously! You are a great story-teller.
ReplyDeleteAnd Stan, as always, thanks for showing the larger perspective too. Quite amazing how we 'end up' considering we broght nothing to it.
ReplyDeleteAnd as I have said in other blogs, God does His best work when He has NOTHING to work with!!