Comfort and Hope · Identity and Purpose · Reflections on Creation · Emotional Healing
Potter, why? Why have you made me this way?
3 min read, approximately
“But who are you, O human being, to argue with God? Will the clay vessel say to the one who formed it: Why have you made me this way?” (Romans 9:20)
Questions and more questions
Why do I feel rejected? Why do I not fit in? Why is this happening to me? Why was I born here? Why did I not have access to this or that? Why was I born ill? Why do I have a disability? Why did the very people who loved me die so soon? Why do I not have a mother or father, or either? Why do I have no siblings? Why did my children abandon me?… Potter, why have you made me this way?
Throughout our lives, we face different questions…
So much effort, resources, and years are spent trying to find answers from doctors, psychologists, and philosophers… yet in the end, they too are people with just as many, or more, unanswered “whys”!
We go to church, but before entering, we leave our suitcase of “whys” outside. Then we go in, raise our hands, sing, and listen to the Word, but on leaving, we pick the suitcase up again.
We harbor and spend more time in our lives making room for so much discontent, resentment, pain, sadness, and neglect of ourselves, but…
Kneading, shaping, polishing, and firing
On the other hand:
- Have we ever heard of a potter who makes useless vessels?
- Did we know that what a potter ultimately makes from mud or clay is a work of art?
- Did we know that this work of art must go through a process before it is complete?
As these questions make us reflect and lessen our desire to argue with the Lord… did we know that the Potter’s process is to knead, shape, polish, and fire us?
We are a precious work in the Potter’s hands!
“For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in.” (Ephesians 2:10)
“Now this is what the Lord says, your Creator, O Jacob, and the one who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)
“Because you were precious in my eyes, you were honored, and I loved you, I will give people in exchange for you and nations for your life.” (Isaiah 43:4)
We are a masterpiece!
The Lord took his time to create us. We are a masterpiece in his hands; he has given us purpose and meaning!
God made us this way because there was no better way to make us! Instead, let us understand that:
“He has made everything beautiful in its time and has placed eternity in their hearts, yet humanity cannot comprehend the work God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
And…
“Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you too will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise he made to us: eternal life.” (1 John 2:24-25)
Will we keep focusing on why God made us this way, or will we read the Word to discover the perfect plan God has for you and me?
May God continue to bless you
and may you continue to have an excellent day in Christ Jesus!
I invite you to stop by the Songbook