The Clay’s Potter
By Darlene Franklin
“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
Power, brilliance, and sovereignty converge within the Father’s heart. There’s nothing He can’t do, no plan He can’t orchestrate. All of creation bows at His command.
This is the God we serve, the God who loves and molds us, teaches and grows us.
With a single word, He set entire galaxies into motion and filled our world with. But when it came to His most beloved creation, He worked in a different manner. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). He took something already made, molded it and shaped it, then breathed life into flesh.
Can you sense the care with which mankind was formed?
Isaiah, the author of today’s verse, is not unique in using the analogy of potter and clay to refer to God and man. But he gives a slightly different twist. He doesn’t say, “God is sovereign, You can trust the way He formed you,” although that’s implied.
Instead, he argues that the Potter remains responsible for the clay. As David says, “do not abandon the work of Your hands” (Psalm 138:8).The clay into which God breathed the breath of life has the right to ask Him for help. He is our maker. The degree to which we shine, we reflect His glory. A pot doesn’t have to hold expensive oils, but a broken pot is good for nothing.
Sometimes God allows us to be broken so that He can put us back together. When that happens, we have the right—indeed, the necessity—to turn to Him for help.
Turn our broken lives over to the Potter—and let Him mold us to His will.
Darlene Franklin, a contributor to Wholly Loved’s devotional project, is a best-selling author of fiction and nonfiction works. Her claim to fame is that she continues to write from a nursing home. She keeps going because God keeps giving her more assignments. She’s written more than fifty-five fiction and nonfiction books, including Pray Through the Bible in a Year and of Cash and Cats in Love Comes on Kitten Paws. Check out a complete list of her books on Amazon and visit her Facebook Pageto stay up to date with her and her writing.
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