“But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one 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 special purposes and some for common use? What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath; prepared for destruction?” Romans 9:20-22
I read a devotion last week that reminded me of a time when I was a little kid in kindergarten and also about the current chaos in Haiti. Back in the day, when we lived in black and white, when I was a young child at St. John’s Lutheran school in Seward, we were given a square log of Play dough and told to make an animal to add to our class zoo. It’s amazing that I can still recall that I made a turtle. There are times I forget to zip up my trousers and I can recall making a clay turtle in 1955. I formed a shell, a head, four legs and a tail. Then we were told to just leave them on a shelf to get hard overnight and become a part of the zoo the next day.
Have you spent time creating with Play Dough or doing that with your kids or grandkids? If you have, then you are well aware that keeping the clay supple and flexible calls for constant attention along the way. We are like that too. Once you grow hard and brittle to God's leading, you're less usable to Him.
When I daily read the news coming out of Haiti, I just want it to end now. Lord, bring an end to this chaos and reopen the schools in PAP. We are like clay in His hands. We need to stay open to whatever it is God may have for us by removing all the limitations we see. We need to tell the Lord we're willing to cooperate; like working with soft clay. We can’t allow the voices in this fallen world to bring hard and negative words and thoughts into our lives and thoughts. Remain like soft clay for His hands.
Let God be God. He is selective when He moves people to accomplish His work. He has been preparing His people living in Haiti for decades to accomplish His plan; His way to end this chaos and heal Haiti. We daily pray for Haiti and remain to wait and watch for Him to use us to help Haiti. There have been some hardships, some horrible wrongs and difficult challenges; just continue to trust Him to take care of the restoration of Haiti.
We need to remain like soft and pliable clay, ready to be molded and shaped by our Heavenly sculptor. Waiting and trusting in His time and His way of completing this restoration. It may not happen in our lifetime, but it will happen. Christ has assured that when he left the tomb empty. Satan has been defeated and the chaos he brings is a lost cause. The battle is over.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay