Commentary: In the Master’s Hands
Commentary: In the Master’s Hands
Douglas Hoy, Conference Disaster Response Coordinator
I
remember attending the Pennsylvania Farm Show a few years ago and viewing the
butter sculpture on display in the Main Hall. I was always amazed at how much
time and effort went into creating these dairy displays. The sculpture for the 2023
annual show took fourteen days to create and, the sculptors spent that time creating
their masterpiece in an enclosure cooled to a temperature between 50 and 60
degrees. It’s quite a contrast to the artists at outdoor festivals whom I’ve
watched create ice or wood sculptures in a fraction of that time, in very
different conditions, using some very rudimentary tools. In both instances, the
result was a wonderful piece of art.
God works in much the same way. Sometimes it
takes Him years to sculpt us into a masterpiece. He pulls away the layers
slowly and methodically to give us our spiritual shape. Other times, He is very
capable of transforming our lives overnight. The environments in which He finds
us can be varied. Yet, like the sculptor, God knows exactly what His design
plans are and creates us with purpose. In His time and through His effort, we
are individually handcrafted and uniquely made.
And, Isaiah 64:8 reinforces this. “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand.”
As
God works in us, we need to be open to His guiding and leading. And, like the clay
used by the potter, we need to have some water…Living Water…to make us pliable
and shapeable. We also need to be centered on the Master Potter’s wheel,
spending time in scripture so we don’t start to wobble and crumble when life
starts to turn.
Did
you know that, after the Farm Show is over, the butter from the sculptures is
recycled…used for another purpose? These works of art, and others like them at
fairs across the nation, are used to produce soap, animal feed, tires, and
renewable energy. We, as God’s masterpieces, are transformed from our old lives
into something new that is not intended to just sit on a pedestal. He created
us for a purpose.
In
her article The Potter and the Clay –
Bible Lessons on How God Molds Us, Diane Shirlaw-Ferreira explains that God
is a very skilled potter. “He took a shepherd boy and molded him into a King.
He took a grumbling fisherman and molded him a leader of the Church. He took a
Hebrew who was ‘dull of speech’ and molded him into the leader of a nation. And
most of all, He molded Himself into human form, the form of an infant, a baby
lying in hay in a manger; to set the captives free; to give us eternal
salvation!”
Imagine yourself as a lump of clay, sitting on the table, and allowing God to transform you-making you into His masterpiece. What is He preparing you for? Is it a children’s ministry in your church? Are you being shaped to share your musical talents during worship? Or, maybe you are being sculpted to be a caring, Christian presence in someone’s life as they recover from a disaster in their life. Whatever it is, remember, you are God’s masterpiece. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). Your heart, body, and mind were formed and shaped into something He can use for His glory. And, you were “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) to accomplish His plan in your daily life.
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