The Spinning Has A Purpose

Have you ever felt dizzy, like you were spinning round and round and round? Have you ever felt like you were not only spinning round and round but that some outside force was applying pressure on you while you were spinning? Me too, I don't think it's our imagination. “But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isiah 64:8 So round and round we go while we are being shaped by the hands of the potter.

So here I am a lump of clay spinning round and round and if I only focus on that it is a very blurry picture. The fact is that this is often how it seems to me, blurry. I am grateful for the perspective I gain in Isiah without this perspective I would feel my life was simply spinning out of control. However, seeing myself on the potters wheel give me a completely different picture. The spinning of a potter's wheel is controlled by the potter. The pressure applied by the potters skilled hand is for a purpose. I, as the lump of clay, can only feel the pressure and the dizzying whirl of the wheel but it is not what I feel that determines what this process produces. In end product comes from the potters mind.

Who is this potter? First, Isiah calls him LORD. This word means master or owner that would give him permission to do with the clay whatever he wanted. That would give him permission but that is not as comforting to me as the next name, Father. Knowing that my Heavenly Father's foot is controlling the spin and His hand is responsible for the pressure gives me comfort. I have children. While I was raising them I often brought pressure to bare upon them. My love for them caused me to be actively involved in their life.

Sometimes my children would rebel against the pressure I was placing on them. However, I loved them far to much to simply give up and walk away. This is the same picture I see when God told Jeremiah to go to the potter's house and watch. The clay was spoiled in the potter's hand. He didn't throw the clay away he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. What a comfort to me to know that the one who does the reworking is also the loving Father.

I come to You today O LORD, You are my Father, you are also the potter. You alone know the plans You have for me. What I know is the pressure and confusion I often feel. Thank You that I can rest in Your love. Thank You that even when the hardness and rebellion of my heart causes You to rework the clay it can never change the goodness of Your heart or You kind intentions towards me. I saw this in the garden when the lump of clay into which You breathed life rebelled against You and You responded by promising a Redeemer!