{"id":5627,"date":"2026-08-05T08:29:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T12:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5627"},"modified":"2026-08-05T08:29:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T12:29:52","slug":"the-potter-and-the-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/the-potter-and-the-clay\/","title":{"rendered":"The Potter and the Clay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here<\/a>
 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each day this month of August we\u2019ll be looking at one of the extraordinary metaphors that the Bible uses to illustrate the nature of our relationship with God.<\/em>
\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cYet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand\u201d <\/em>(Isaiah 64:8).
\u00a0
We will never experience peace in this world unless\u00a0we master a crucial skill.
\u00a0
We must learn the art of letting go.
\u00a0
Bowlers, by definition, have to let go of their bowling balls.\u00a0But some of us appear to do that only\u00a0with extreme\u00a0reluctance.\u00a0After the ball is out of our hands and heading down the lane, we figure it might be helpful to shout additional instructions.\u00a0

\u201cLeft, left, left!\u00a0No, not into the gutter!\u201d\u00a0We wave our hands.\u00a0We balance precariously on one leg, as if our gyrations will magically transmit course corrections to a solid object whose trajectory\u00a0has already been established.\u00a0

Golfers aren’t immune from this behavior, either.\u00a0\u201cCome on, drop in there \u2013 no, not in the trees!\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
And then there\u2019s parenting. It\u2019s hard to watch your teenager take off on her first solo drive in the family car, or wave goodbye to your oldest kid on his first day at college, without thinking, \u201cBut I\u2019m still in control of what happens next, right?\u201d Actually, no.
\u00a0
And that brings us to the greatest Letting Go challenge of all: We need to let go of the management of our own lives.
\u00a0
That may qualify as the Bible\u2019s most counter-cultural assertion to a modern Western audience.
\u00a0
We have been schooled to believe that our lives are our own project. Commercials urge us to \u201ccolor outside the lines\u201d when it comes to expressing our individuality, and to \u201cfind our own roads\u201d behind the wheel of an off-road vehicle. Earnest speakers tell children they can be anything they want to be. Disney movies assure kids they will experience fulfillment if they discover their true selves by listening to the inner voice that will never mislead them.
\u00a0
Pop stars will show us the way. In her 2022 commencement address at New York University, Taylor Swift told the graduating class, \u201cYou\u2019re on your own now\u2026 Trust your intuition in navigating life\u2019s uncertain path.\u201d
\u00a0
All of a sudden, the Bible seems seriously out of step.
\u00a0
That\u2019s screamingly obvious when we hear Isaiah tell us that God is a celestial potter who has just thrown a lump of wet clay onto the wheel \u2013 and we are the clay.
\u00a0
A potter exercises complete artistic sovereignty. That\u2019s another way of saying that the one who shapes the clay is in charge. The clay\u2019s job isn\u2019t to trust its own intuition. It doesn\u2019t have an inner voice. The clay cannot protest, \u201cBut my lifelong dream was to become a flowerpot, not a candy dish!\u201d
\u00a0
The apostle Paul pushes things to the limit in Romans 9:20-21:
\u00a0
\u201cBut who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?\u00a0\u2018Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,\u00a0\u201cWhy did you make me like this?\u201d\u2019 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?\u201d
\u00a0
If the potter-and-clay metaphor is the only thing we knew about our relationship with God, we would all be in despair.
\u00a0
There would be no provision for free will, for growth, for change, for failure, for forgiveness, for love.
\u00a0
That\u2019s why Scripture provides at least three dozen different metaphors for knowing and serving the Lord. One picture cannot say everything. And we dare not build our theology around just one or two of them.
\u00a0
This is not to say, of course, that the motif of God as potter has nothing to teach us.
\u00a0
Both Old and New Testaments declare that God is an artist. We are his masterpieces. God intentionally shapes our lives according to his purposes and desires. He is actively involved in every aspect of our existence \u2013 past, present, and future. And the wonderful news is that flawed vessels can be reshaped by the power of his Spirit.
\u00a0
What role does that leave us?
\u00a0
Our call is to be malleable \u2013 to pray that we can be pliable in the Master\u2019s hands. We must depend on him in everything, trusting that he knows best even when we cannot grasp where he\u2019s taking us. Every day we can live in the hope that even when life seems shattered beyond repair, God the artist is a master of restoration. As long as we live, that hope has not been extinguished.
\u00a0
To put it simply: God is pleading with us to let go. It\u2019s time to let go of the management of our own lives.
\u00a0
Our lives are not our own project. They are God\u2019s project. And he knows what he\u2019s doing.

It’s worth noting that there’s no verse in the Bible that says, “And God began to worry.”\u00a0God has nothing to worry about.\u00a0That’s because God is\u00a0actually in control of the cosmos \u2013 which means we can give up trying to control all the circumstances, family members, and projects we were never really in charge of in the first place.

Author and theologian Dallas Willard once wrote, “At the beginning of each morning I commit my day to the Lord’s care… I have already placed God in charge. I no longer have to manage the weather, airplanes, and other people.”\u00a0\u00a0

By taking our minds off the myriad what-might-happens today, we’re free\u00a0to\u00a0give our full attention to the actual Managing Director of the Universe.

What, in the end, is\u00a0the difference between you and God?\u00a0\u00a0

God doesn’t think he’s you.\u00a0<\/em>

Which means all of us can enjoy the freedom to become the masterpieces the Great Artist has always intended us to be.
\u00a0
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here  Each day this month of August we\u2019ll be looking at one of the extraordinary metaphors that the Bible uses to illustrate the nature of our relationship with God.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand\u201d (Isaiah 64:8).\u00a0We… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[892,1159],"class_list":["post-5627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gods-sovereignty-2","tag-metaphors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5629,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5627\/revisions\/5629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}