Stopping Along The Way

The link from a Friend’s Facebook post looked interesting, and it was less than ten minutes, but just over a minute into it, I stopped. Not because I was bored, but because Francis Chan had given words to a picture I had in my mind.

Remember the potter/clay analogy? Isaiah made it concise:

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 KJV)

Jeremiah’s conversation with the Lord went much further:

Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. (Jeremiah 18:3-6 KJV)

For decades I’ve pictured myself on our Lord’s wheel. Today I saw so much more – finished pieces, other pieces in progress, unused clay waiting for the potter’s hands. Though I have His attention, I’ve never been alone in the potter’s hands. There are clouds upon clouds of witnesses.

As I stopped the video, I also noted that the potter did not place marring items in the clay.  Having used clay to cast greenware, I know the discovered bits and pieces of material that pebble a smooth surface. The clay comes in contact with items that don’t belong  in it, yet finds ways to touch, adhere and mar the piece as it turns. Not the fault of the potter, is it? He will remold, make it into a slightly different piece than what he originally had in mind.

Eventually, if the clay cannot be molded into usefulness, it will be discarded. People complain that God makes that decision. I don’t think so, and neither did Paul:

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Romans 9:19-21 KJV)

True, God made us all. Some of us are honorable, some are not. That depends on what we do with the life we’re given. Call them reasons, call them excuses, call them explanation of where we are on our life’s walk, we each make our own choices. Some will not yield to the potter’s hands, folding uselessly.

And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. (Jeremiah 18:12 KJV)

Not me.  Oh, I may waver in my imagination, but I have hope.

But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more. (Psalms 71:14 KJV)

(Oh – the video? I haven’t made it back there – but I will!)