“Yet You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand” (Is. 64:8).
My self-esteem received a boost when I realized that the Heavenly Potter does not have an assembly line. Each piece has been handmade; each pot is totally unique. Each is beautiful in its very own way, especially when standing on the right shelf, fulfilling the function the designer had in mind for it. For example, a pitcher should pour well, without dripping, have a handle that is easily grasped, and be strong enough to carry the weight it will hold. It has been made for a specific job.
God has shaped us within and without for the function of our future, having a specific place and use for us. He said of the apostle Paul “…he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles” (Acts 9:15 NKJV). This man was chosen for the function of his future and painted with the colors of his culture. Decorated with his Jewish heritage and patterned by his marvelous education, he was glazed with a brilliant intellect and fired in the furnace of necessary affliction. Everything that had gone to make up the man called “Saul of Tarsus” had already been recorded in the Potter’s manual well before he was ever committed. He had been fashioned to sit on many a Gentile shelf and bear Christ’s name before the heathen world of his day.
There will be shelf for you to sit on, too, and there will be a shelf for me. Maybe it will be in the home, raising our children, or in the office, building bridges of friendship with confused friends, or in the hospital, old people’s home, or even in prison. There will be a shelf on which to settle and a reason for our being there. If we are not to fail to fulfill the Potter’s purpose, we will need to remember we have been painted with the colors of our culture and shaped for the function of our future. We can discover we have been uniquely handmade for the occasion.
Knowing God’s purposes helps us to submit to His processes. Life on the Potter’s wheel, after all, can sometimes give us the impression that we are going round and round in circles getting nowhere. But this need not be true. If we know the Potter has a purpose in making us as we are, and putting us down where we are, then we must believe there is a process going on as He makes us what He would ultimately have us to be.
