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Visualizing God as Our Potter
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. (Isa 64:8)
The Creator of all things—including you—yearns for you to recognize and build your life on this truth:
“Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” (Jer 18:6)
At times, the vessel of clay being shaped by a potter is “spoiled.” What then? A skillful potter “reworks” the clay into another vessel, “as it seem[s] good to the potter to do” (Jer 18:4). God employs that simple truth to emphasize his power and grace: “Can I not do with you as this potter has done?” (Jer 18:6) The clearest representation of what God desires to shape us into is the person of Jesus Christ, “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). Therefore, Paul encourages disciples of Christ to realize:
We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son… (Rom 8:28-29)
Having been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of God (1 Cor 6:11), it can be said of Christians, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2:10).
But will we act like his workmanship? Think like his workmanship? Prioritize like his workmanship?
“Has the potter no right over the clay?” (Rom 9:21)
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8-9)
For those who choose to leave God out of their thinking:
Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? (Isa 29:15-16)
How much more appropriate to yield and humbly communicate to God:
- “Make me to know your ways… teach me your paths.” (Psa 25:4)
- “Make me know what is the measure of my days.” (Psa 39:4)
- “Make me to be broken and truthful concerning my sin.” (Psa 51:1-9)
- “Make me understand the way of your precepts.” (Psa 119:27)
- “Make me know the way I should go.” (Psa 143:8)
- “Make me a servant, just like your Son.” (Mark 10:45)
Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his. (Psa 100:3)
