THE POTTER'S WHEEL

After thirty-one years, I still have the small, lovely vase I bought in Beijing, China in 1984.  It is only clay, but the potter shaped it to be both functional and beautiful.  I treasure it for its beauty and its capacity to bring back memories of that first trip.  It also reminds me of two verses in the Bible about the Potter and clay:

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.

We are the clay. You are the potter;

we are the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8

Then the word of the Lord came to me:

O house of Israel, can I not do with you

as the potter does?  Declares the Lord.

Like clay in the hand of the potter,

so are you in my hand.

Jeremiah 18:5&6

The Bible is the Living Word.  It had meaning and purpose in Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s day, and so it does for us today.  If we will, God will take the clay of our lives and shape it into vessels to be “filled to the measure of the fullness of God” as we read in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (3:19), filled with the Holy Spirit, God’s essence, pure love.  God wills to do this, to shape us and fill us with himself for service for him to others, and ultimately for his glory.

I truly love the metaphor of the Potter and the clay and the accompanying idea of being shaped into a vessel both functional and beautiful.  Only recently has another dimension of the metaphor come to mind.  It is that of the Potter’s wheel.  God can do anything on his own, but as the Potter he chooses to place the clay of our lives on Potter’s wheels.  In other words, he uses human agency, social contexts, and circumstances to shape us with competence and character after his likeness. 

The Extended Raymond Family Potter's Wheel

What are some of the wheels that the Potter uses to express his loving creativity?  Every afternoon, Irene and I care for our little twenty-one month old grandson.  What a joy! The first Potter’s wheel is family.   Family life shapes the clay in Jesus name.  Families can be contexts of health or toxic.  So may schools, summer camps, community centers, churches, youth groups, colleges, and universities.  Just this past week, Irene and I returned from Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) visiting The Salvation Army William and Catherine Booth University College (Booth College for short) where I spoke at their graduation.  Without question, Booth UC is a potter’s wheel, as are Asbury University,  Trinity Western University, and other Christ-centered institutions of higher higher education.  Their graduates choose to place themselves on a Potter’s wheel for four years.  Their opportunity is value-added because it is the Potter’s wheel. His hands and the college wheel itself is the human agency of faculty, staff, and leadership that continue to be shaped themselves as clay in the Potter’s hands.

I realize now that, if we are remain all throughout life in the Potter’s hands, He will continue the creative work of shaping, filling, and using us for the coming of His Kingdom and for the glory due His name.

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.

Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.

(then)

Make me a blessing, humble and meek,

Lord may I lift up those who are weak,

And may the prayer of my heart always be,

Make me a blessing (x2), I pray.