Clay in the Hands of God

“Like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand.” Jeremiah 18:6

Anyone who has tried to work with clay will know that the quality, the workability of the clay determines much of what the potter can make out of it. At the start, the clay just looks like mud with a lot of stones and twigs and leaves in it as it is dug out of a river bank or even a construction site. The potter can’t use it until he removes all the alien matter by using a sieve or processing it by hand. Can you imagine how painful that would be if we were the clay? 

After the clay is prepared, the potter puts it on a potter’s wheel and turns it round and round much like we experience the trials and challenges of life again and again! Unlike clay, we can choose to be malleable in God’s hands and cooperate with what He wants to do. Sometimes God uses a low temperature to fire us up. But if He uses a higher temperature, we should know that He wants to make us useful for His own purposes. Clay of good quality like kaolin or porcelain need higher temperatures and are fired repeatedly but they can be made into plates, and cups and vases and they can be decorated with glaze. 

None of the pain we experience at the hands of the Master Potter is ever wasted. The longer He works in us, that means He is working to remove all that does not please Him in our character, the more He is making us useful and beautiful in His sight. 

Thank You Lord, that I am in Your hands! The best place in the world for me! We need only to trust in You!