Today I am not happy being clay. As I prepared to teach Sunday school to four year olds I became so frustrated. Here I am with degrees from two Bible colleges, daughter of a well-respected seminary Bible professor, with third world missionary goals and aspirations. Yet here I am reading Sunday school curriculum on God making each child "special," when what I really want to do is share Christ's love and the Gospel to the lost (specifically Muslim women). What happened here?? Hello? God, do you see this? Clearly, this is where God wants me right now (due to health issues), but yet the questions still come. And I don't think I'm alone in these questions. In fact these were the type of questions that were asked to God in the time of Isaiah. And as in the case with Job, His answer was not very gentle, but the directness is oh so necessary:
"Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker- an earthernware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'? Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'To what are you giving birth?'.... It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands and ordained all their host." Isaiah 45:9,10,12
And the apostle Paul, in a similar fashion, perhaps reflecting on this Old Testament passage, writes in Romans 9:20-21...
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
Consider me now put in my place. I may be clay, but I'm "special" clay in the hands of a powerful-trustworthy- loving-wise-capable Potter with a Father's heart.
"Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker- an earthernware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'? Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'To what are you giving birth?'.... It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands and ordained all their host." Isaiah 45:9,10,12
And the apostle Paul, in a similar fashion, perhaps reflecting on this Old Testament passage, writes in Romans 9:20-21...
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
Consider me now put in my place. I may be clay, but I'm "special" clay in the hands of a powerful-trustworthy- loving-wise-capable Potter with a Father's heart.
I was very blessed by your comment on my blog, so I thought I'd reciprocate the gesture. You are right, we do have a lot in common. I too have a heart for muslim women and third world missions; and my father is a pastor:)
ReplyDeleteThis post was very encouraging and convicting for me; thank you for writing. I intend to keep reading your blog. :)