The Potter’s Clay
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. “Go down to the potter’s house and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” Jeremiah 18:1-4
This picture of the potter is a comfort to many Christians and it should be too. God is the potter, carefully moulding the clay into the shape the potter sees in his mind.
As Jeremiah watched, the clay took on a contorted shape. Patiently the potter reworked the wet clay.
We can sometimes give this picture a wrong emphasis though. The issue isn’t how nice the finished article looks. How we look is important to God but nowhere near as important as how useful we are to Him in fulfilling His plans and purposes.
If we don’t get this part right we can finish up wrongly accusing God of forgetting His promises when all along, He deals with us in a different way precisely because He’s being faithful to those promises. He sees the big picture and too often we only see the small one. He wants to use us to bring blessing to the nations no matter what it costs, while most times our greatest wish is just to be left alone, be pain-free and always feel very happy.
Do you see the big picture? Do the things that grab God’s heart grab yours?
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