Reflections on God's Word

by Victoria Robinson

Spinning out of control is scary. Oddly enough, our heavenly Father, being the great artist He is, likes to put us on a potter’s wheel and spin us around and around until He shapes us into a beautiful creation. Originally pottery pots and jars were made with built up coils of clay smoothed and shaped by hand. I picture this as gently shaping the clay into what one desires. Then there came a “slow wheel” which was a small flat disk on a spindle, with a larger stone disk on the other end. It was spun by hand as the potter alternated between keeping the wheel in motion and shaping the clay. Still sounds fairly gentle. But hold on girlfriends, there is also the “fast wheel”. This had two wheels, one above the other, with an axle joining them. The potter sat on a bench and turned the lower wheel with his feet. This way, he could keep it going rapidly, yet still have both hands free to shape the clay on the upper wheel.¹

Our heavenly Potter oftentimes has to employ the use of the “fast wheel”. Sounds dizzying doesn’t it? Jeremiah visited a potter at his wheel. He compared the potter who molds his clay to God who has the power to mold the nation of Israel. While being shaped and molded is uncomfortable, it is futile and wrong to argue with the Potter about how He is molding and shaping us. Dearest girlfriends, let us rest in the comfort of the knowledge that all the discomfort of “spinning on the Potter’s wheel” will result in us becoming a more beautiful creation.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ~ Jeremiah 18:1-6 NIV

“Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ … ~ Isaiah 45:9 NIV

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? ~ Romans 9:20-21 NIV

¹Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary