My sister is a potter. She has gifted me over the years with plates, bowls, mugs, pitchers, and a teapot. I love displaying her beautiful work and using them in my daily life. I am in awe that she can turn a wheel, shape an object, pour some glaze on it, apply extreme heat, and out comes a work of art as well as functionality.

I can understand why Isaiah chose a potter to describe God’s relationship with the people of Judah and with us.

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

But imagine my sister’s surprise if one day while forming a pot, a voice rose from the clay to complain, “You don’t know what you’re doing? Why did you make me like this?”

• You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? (Isaiah 29:16)
• One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, one who is like a mere shard among the other shards on the ground! The clay should not say to the potter, “What in the world are you doing? Your work lacks skill!” (Isaiah 45:9 NET)
• But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” (Romans 9:20)

While of course this scenario is absurd (proving Isaiah’s point), I think my sister would reply, “Actually I do know what I’m doing. I’m the potter, after all. I can shape you, lump of clay, into anything I want. And I want to make you into a work of art!”

• He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. (Jeremiah 18:6)
• For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
• for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:13)

Do you talk back to your Maker? What do you say?

What good work has God created for you? What work of art are you becoming?

PRAYER

Lord God, my potter, thank you for crafting me into a masterpiece for your glory. Forgive me for the times I question your ability to create and form me. Help me to trust that you, my Maker, know best.

---

All Scripture is from the New International Version unless otherwise noted and emphasis is added.