From One Clay Vessel to Another

“But now O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter. We are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8).

There are few passages in scripture that bring to me a greater sense of comfort and joy than what we read in Isaiah chapter sixty-four. Take a close look at it with me.

The first point Isaiah made is that God is indeed our Father. The image of God as Father is present throughout scripture. Now I don’t know what your relationship with your father was like, but I do know the incredible impact a father has on his children. Good fathers bring security, comfort, stability, safety, leadership, protection and strength to their homes. The absence of a father has the potential to stifle the health of the family and all its members. I had a good relationship with my father, but he died when I was thirteen years old. To this day, I lament not having a father during the years since his death.

But there’s more. Not only is God our father, Isaiah referred to him as the potter, with us being the clay. Once again I like that. It tells me that God shapes us into the people he wants us to be, provided we remain pliable in his hands. I take great comfort in knowing that he shapes us. It tells me that whatever he brings into our lives is for the greater purpose of making us vessels suitable for his use. The potter molds, shapes, forms, fashions and constructs the clay according to his wishes into whatever he desires.

God does the same thing in our lives. He takes an intimate interest in the clay (his children) for the purpose of making us into whatever his sovereign plan includes. In shaping the clay as he does, God is always at work for his glory and the good of the clay. After all, no potter makes a vessel that does not reflect the skill of the potter. God works in the same way. The truth of the matter is that we are the reflection of his skill as a potter. How and what he does in shaping us makes us the work of his hands meant to reflect his glory.

I am quite comfortable in embracing the reality that a good father is at work as a good potter in creating a good product, a vessel suitable for his use. Join me in embracing the gentle hand of the potter at work in our lives, would you?