"But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." Isaiah 64:8
I love the word picture this creates....
I am a lump of clay and God is the Potter molding me.
Lately it seems He has been working a bit extra on me-- pressing, pinching, forming, remolding, and removing excess clay.
It sure has been painful at times.
You see...
I am a stubborn lump.
At times I get dried and hard, pretty much refusing to let Him to do any work at all.
Countless other times I do not give in easily to how He wants to mold me.
I have this vision of what I want to look like and sometimes I am pretty bent on getting there...
MY way,
what I think is the easy way.
Yet, He already knows what I am to look like and if I would just soften to His touch and trust Him, then He could do His work on me.
While I am busy striving, He is gently but firmly molding me...
As I have resisted and fought against His touch, I nearly missed out on an important truth.
Look at the potter in the picture above, busy spinning and molding a lump of clay. Pressing his fingers into the clay to make interesting grooves. Scraping away the excess. Wetting the clay when it dries, etc.
We can't see his face, but I bet if we looked deeply into his eyes we would see a deep sense of pleasure there...
Here is the awesome part (~smile) :
All the while the potter is working away on this stubborn lump, he is enjoying the process. And what's more,
he is happy working with the clay - it is what he likes to do.
As I wrestle with the knowledge that God has done so much work on me and still has so much work left to do...
and as I struggle with the thought of the pain that may create...
What a joy it is to remember that He loves me!
He is molding me with gentle, loving hands.
And the work He is doing is for my good.
So in the end...
I can be a vessel He can use.
