Creator, Father, King #27

O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.

THINK BACK TO WHEN you were a young child.

Did you ever play with Play-Doh? Chances are, you did! Who knew what fun kids could have with just the right mixture of flour, water, salt, boric acid, and mineral oil. Ahhh, those were the days—when nothing more than a young imagination and a carton full of squishy modeling compound could provide entertainment for hours (or at least twenty minutes).

Now imagine if suddenly that strange-looking Play-Doh humanoid you had created peeled itself off your kitchen table, stood up, and said, “You fool! Look what you’ve done to me! How dare you give me asymmetrical legs, Picasso eyes, and an arm with a crab claw for a hand! What were you thinking?”

This, of course, is ridiculous. Created beings would never have the audacity to question and revolt against their creator, without whom they wouldn’t even exist, right?

Wrong.

What’s It Mean?

Sadly, we act like that insolent lump of Play-Doh when we rebel against God and question his rule in our lives.

As we discuss Creation, it’s important to remember one of the chief lessons of Genesis 1: because God is the sovereign Creator and we are the created, we answer to him in everything. We were created in his image. As part of his creation, we must submit to his authority. He makes the rules and we obey, not vice versa. To question God would be utterly absurd, like a lumpy, half-concocted Play-Doh creature going on a power trip.

Thousands of years before Play-Doh was invented, the prophet Isaiah made several metaphorical references to pottery clay. One of them is today’s verse. Look also at his very blunt message to idolatrous Judah in the eighth century BC: “How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, ‘He didn’t make me’? Does a jar ever say, ‘The potter who made me is stupid’?” (Isaiah 29:16).

The implied answer, of course, is no. We can learn a great deal from this, too. Don’t be like a senseless jar or bitter lump of Play-Doh, fighting your Maker. Instead, be moldable clay in the hands of the loving Master Potter.

Now What?

Are you trying to rule areas of your life? Prayerfully submit them to your Creator.

Did You Know?

The putty-like substance that eventually became a wildly popular children’s modeling compound known as Play-Doh was first sold as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s.