The Recreative Hand of God

The Lord sent Prophet Jeremiah to the potter's house for an object lesson. What the Lord shows Jeremiah speaks about the recreative hand of God in a broken life.

In Jeremiah 18:3, he writes, "...and there he was making something at the wheel." At times I've felt much like the clay: formless, lacking a defined purpose, and altogether useless. Jeremiah describes the clay has being "marred" or ruined. So not only is my life much like a lump of wet clay, but the very material is ruined.

Then I noticed verse 5: "Then the word of the Lord came to me..." Despite the mess, the unattractiveness or marred places in my life, the Lord speaks. The same God who spoke the world into existence out of a formless space.

The question, "...can I not do with you as this potter?" What did the potter do? The potter made from the same clay another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make (verse 4). From the same marred material, the potter recreates another vessel. This vessel more noble, beautiful and useful.

Why would the potter use the same material rather than toss it? And what vessel is the Lord, the Potter, shaping out of clay lumped and marred by weakness and failure? I believe He is making me a vessel of mercy (Roman 9:23). How wonderful is God to take this clay and water, this decaying body, to illustrate the riches of His glory! My challenge is cooperate and stay in His hands as He forms me.