...potter

"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).

I remember hearing those words when I was a child sitting in a church pew. I envisioned a man sitting at his pottery wheel, shaping something from a glob of clay. It took me decades to understand what these words really meant.

God is the potter.

He created us, taking us from an idea to what He imagined we could be, then shaping us into something beautiful.

We are the clay.

We aren't in control of how we are "shaped" or how long it will take for God to complete His creation. We are at His mercy, but His mercies are beautiful.

We are all the work of His hand, and we are all in his hands. Even when the work He does is painful and lasts longer than we want, the end result is always beautiful.

Some days I recognize that He is still shaping me, even in my sixth decade, and I wonder why? What else needs to be changed?   On those days, I have to remind myself that I won't always understand what He is doing or why. But what I do know is this: He is the potter, shaping me into the image of His Son.

And that is a beautiful thing.

"And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18).

-tom norvell