MUSINGS

“I HAVE FORMED THEE” (Isaiah 44: 21) The art and skill of the potter are often referred to in the Scriptures and it was fascinating to watch a craftsman at work in Sweden in an ancient restored pottery. First a shapeless lump of clay was placed on a revolving flat surface. Then, with the deft touches of the potter’s fingers, it quickly began to take shape. His left hand was surrounding the clay, almost, it seemed, lovingly. A touch from his right hand, and the inside began

to form; just a momentary touch at another point and the outside began to take on grace and beauty. So the process went on and what shortly before had been formless became something of beauty and distinctiveness, according to the mind of the potter. At last the process was complete, and a beautiful vase was carefully lifted from the wheel, ready for the next process.

It left a deep impression of the fact that each believer is to be in subjection in the hands of divine skill. Pressure is needed, but it is timed and applied with infinite skill, and ever in perfect love and wisdom, so that the material God has taken up in His sovereign purpose may take on formation according to Christ—not the graces and character of this world, not the features of nature or the flesh, but the traits of the heavenly Man.

FCM