Yet you, LORD, are our Father.
Isaiah 64:8 NIV
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
I cannot play basketball like Michael Jordan. I do not have the intellect of Albert Einstein. Nor, as much as I might want them, do I have the eloquence of Charles Spurgeon, the zeal of the Apostle Paul, or the leadership ability of King David.
It is easy to look at the abilities and successes of other people and want that for yourself. And assume that, because you do not have the talent you see in others, you have little to offer God and his kingdom. But this little verse can help us to have a different perspective.
The psalmist compares God to a potter. A potter who can take a simple lump of clay and form it into a variety of different vessels according to his need. I am one of those lumps of clay that God has formed, and continues to shape, as he chooses. He did not give me the talents and skills I admire in many others. But I am what he wanted to make. And that is true for each of us.
God has created and shaped each of us according to his purpose, we are the work of the potter’s hand. So, rather than wish we were something else, we should embrace how God has made us, and be that to the best of our ability. Ultimately, it’s not how talented we are that matters. It’s what we do with what he has given us.
