THE POTTER AND THE CLAY

I opened the little book again and found myself in Romans 9. 

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”  But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?  Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”  Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?  What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory - even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Apparently I need to take heed, for this passage dramatically reinforces the insight from my reading yesterday.  A reasonable question is posed: how can God judge when he’s pulling the strings?  If he's a potter molding reality to his will, isn’t everything reducible to him?  In moments of alienation or disappointment, it’s so easy to cast blame or wonder why.  I’ve screamed curses at God in moments of weakness, surrealistically indulging in righteous indignation against the author of righteousness.  And yet, I must wonder: if he’s determined to judge us, isn’t he judging himself too?

And then I hear echoes of an old question: me or you? and rest in the silence that follows in its wake.  The potter and the clay speak with one voice.  The objects of wrath and objects of mercy are opposing sides of the same force, calling forth the new from the darkness of the unknown.  How could it be any different, when all of reality is a part of God and everything belongs?  This is a scary thought, for the state of things is a commentary on who God is, and the world we know can be cruel and bitterly unjust.  The good news is that God has not left us alone, will not leave it this way, and will use any instrument he deems necessary to pull it forward.  Slowly and patiently, he draws us closer to him.  It is a story about God, and thus a story about us all – bound together in this glorious, enigmatic unfolding.

theperennialjourney