Yahweh Coffee and Me

The Potter

Yet You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

—Isaiah 64:8 (NIV)

I have friends in Jamaica who own a pottery shop and are gifted potters. They are called the Clonmel Potters. Clonmel is the area where they live and have their shop. I so enjoy being in their workshop and watching Donald take the clay, throw it onto the potter’s wheel, and begin to make the wheel move with his feet. As the wheel rotates, he uses his hands to shape the clay, adding a little water when necessary. He is very careful and precise in how he uses his hands to shape the wet clay. When the wheel stops and he is finished, he has created something very beautiful.

That is what we are to God; we are like clay that He wants to shape and make into a beautiful vessel to be used. When the potter is finished shaping the clay on the wheel, that is only the beginning. The vessel must dry, then needs to be fired at a very high heat to make it strong so it can be used. Also, glaze needs to be applied to give it color and beauty. As we seek God and desire to grow as Christians, that is what God does with us. Sometimes because of the tribulations we go through, we feel like we are in the middle of a fire, but our Lord is with us. In Daniel 3:19–30 (NKJV), the Bible talks about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego being thrown into the fiery furnace, but “the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them” (Daniel 3:27 NKJV). That was because Jesus was with them. They came out better and stronger than they were when they went into the furnace.

Without the potter, clay is just dirt! Without God and His Word, we cannot be made into what He wants us to be. He wants each one of us to become a living vessel to be used to glorify Him and to love His people.

Will you allow God to be the potter in your life, to mold you into something beautiful for Him?

Father, please mold me into the person You created me to be. Amen.