EVERYTHING WE NEED: The Potter and the Clay

“O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isa. 64:8 NIV1984). This verse gives us great assurance. God is our Father who loves and protects us. Like the potter who molds and shapes the clay into a vessel of beauty and use, God desires to transform us into vessels useful for His kingdom.

Today, an earthly potter owns the clay and has full control over its form. If it becomes marred, he pushes it down and starts over. He is a skilled artisan. The clay has no rights in this matter. It cannot refuse the potter’s plan nor submit its own design. It is just a clump of clay from which the artist makes something beautiful and useful.

Clay today comes from wet ground found in lakes, ponds, rivers or streams. Someone described it as just an old, tired rock that, when exposed to hot temperatures, can turn back into rock. Clay contains good, natural elements but also has significant impurities. These impurities can affect the quality and purity of the design if they are not removed. If small pieces of plaster are in the clay, they will explode when heated in the kiln, and the pottery will be ruined.

God is the Potter and, just as the earthly potter has control over the clay, He has control over us even more. Carefully crafted by His hands, we have value and purpose. Difficulties in our lives are unpleasant, but God uses them to mold us into what He wants us to be. He may discipline us as His children, but only for a season. When we respond to His correction and turn back to Him, His mercy is poured out on us. He loves us more than we can even imagine. He showed His love in the greatest way — He gave His only Son to die on the cross for our sins.

As clay, we are just a formless lump of dirt, filled with impurities, sinful from birth yet made into something beautiful and useful in the hands of the Master Potter. We may not realize it, but the things we often say seem to question God’s plan for our lives. When we see people who have beautiful voices, can play the piano so well or those who can speak with confidence, do we desire to be like them? Are we implying that God did not design us correctly? We do not have the right to question Him and should resolve never to do so. God knows us best and formed us exactly as He wanted. We do not need to envy anyone or feel like we have nothing to offer God. He says we are valuable just the way He made us. He just wants us to make Him our priority.

To people who claim that God made a mistake in choosing their gender at birth, this verse states: “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker… Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?...’” (Isaiah 45:9 NIV1984). To those who try to hide their plans from God, He says, “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me?’ Can the pot say to the potter, ‘He knows nothing?’ (Isaiah 29:16 NIV1984).

This beloved hymn says, “Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”